And there's a problem: that essentially means that some work will never become public domain in the lifetime of its contemporaries.
Let's go back to the 14-year copyright, but drop the renewal altogether.
(Patents are a similar problem, but what's needed there is to reject software patents.)
Never going to happen.
And while were at it time for term limits for elected officials voting has not worked out very well starting with President one 5 year term
I was going to post a response but you have said everything I wanted to say..well done :-)
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And there’s a problem: that essentially means that some work will never become public domain in the lifetime of its contemporaries.”
The “public” didn’t create it, so why should out ever be in their domain?
“what’s needed there is to reject software patents”
No, software can be very innovative. What should happen is allow companies to either use trade secret protection (think software as a service) or patent protection for five years. After five years, the source code should be released and become public domain.
A conservative policy like this would foster innovation, productivity, and wealth creation. And big companies could not just continue to monopolize markets without innovating.
We need to shorten the copyright term. (And I speak as a copyright owner.)