krakataul: Why does it matter how long do I need to make a profit if I am the author
rtcvb32: Because that's the argument used over and over to extend the copyright length.
Besides, who created/invented the Little Mermaid? It wasn't Disney, they just made an iteration FROM PUBLIC DOMAIN that they then claim rights over, and if anyone would do a better job than them they would sue them into oblivion. We've seen this already with the later Alice in Wonderland movie(s).
And as we see things going into public domain, like Whinnie the Pooh, had it been shorter i'm sure the first thing that others would do, is further stories of Christopher Robin, and other tales, not horror films Blood and Honey. Shorter duration would mean those with a passion and love for it would likely extend the story and works far better and faster, rather than someone picking it up purely based on the name of familiarity.
Also as i've seen over and over, companies that buy up intellectual ideas and rights, overload themselves become complacent fat and lazy and the most evil companies you can imagine (EA, Disney, Activation Blizzard) who were once lean and very competitive and good companies. They have such backlogs of properties they feel they can resell it infinitely forever. No, if the duration of copyright was short, then companies would have to... ACTUALLY be creative and make things rather than revisiting the old well over and over again.
Worse companies see ownership of properties as such where they'd rather destroy it rather than let everyone have it. Don't believe me? There's many racing games, console games, arcade games that are lost to time or don't run at all because they require online connectivity to work, and they won't have the sources when it's time to release it, no they are vapor-ware, and far more would be if archiving wasn't being done. And with the greediness of current companies they want all the older stuff to go bye-bye so you have to get the newest latest and greatest which they can turn off at any time, or to outlaw emulation and make older games you buy only live within the window when THEY decide to release hardware or discs, which isn't very often, once they let it go they expect it to die, or flip a kill switch, or never having it on hand in the first place (
streaming) Permanently, as much as you will own nothing.
Main misunderstanding seems to be: you are talking about corporate owned copyright, and I am concerned about individual authors (H.C.Andersen, C. Robin, M. Twain, E. Hemingway, J.R.R. Tolkien, A. Sapkowski or Lucas Pope, Jeff Vogel...etc.) as I don't see how can you take away authors ownership during their lifetime? Some may try to make money by writing books or making games, or may decide to destroy their work like Kafka did (try), but it is theirs to do what they want with it - even if they decide to transfer/sell/licence their artistic property to some company/corporation.
In EU, copyright protects author's intellectual property until 70 years after death or, in the case of collaboration, 70 years after the death of the last surviving author.
I guess you are focused on corporate copyright, in EU it lasts for 70 years after publication. In USA it is something like 95-125 years if I remember correctly. It seems little exaggerated, but then again, that's U.S. politics for you :)
