In a sense, it is this way already. Every few years, Disney donates to various Congressional campaigns, and the limit on copyrights after the author’s death gets extended another few years....but then a lot of stuff that should revert to public domain gets protected along with Mickey Mouse.
I like the idea though. Maybe give a few years free for newly created works, then the copyright owner would have to pay an annual fee to keep the copyright.
Now once a copyright is expired it ought not be allowed to be renewed. “It’s A Wonderful Life” used to be public domain. It would never have become a popular movie if TV stations hadn’t been allowed to show it for free. Then NBC or somebody donated to somebody’s campaign (Clinton’s for sure, probably many others) and poof! It was proprietary once again.
Say you create something. The item is entirely the product of your own imagination and/or toil. To protect yourself, you copyright it. Then, for reasons outside your control (lack of funds, illness, whatever), you can't market it for several years, although you intend to in the future. Someone waits out the short copyright period you advocate and, as soon as the copyright expires, he steals your idea/concept/product, slaps a new copyright on it, and successfully markets it. Where's the justice in that?
Nope, I disagree with you and others who are advocating a weakening of our copyright protections. Private property is one of the few bedrock principles that distinguish Western democracies from Marxist states.
A lot of people run around these days crowing that they are "real" conservatives. They hold extremely harsh views of anyone whom they see as deviating from their vision of what "real" conservatism means. Yet when it comes to conserving true bedrock principles such as private property, they are just as eager as the Left is to participate in the destruction of our very foundations.