What is the ideal copyright?

[CatInASuit]

Copyright - there to protect the individual rights of someone to something they have created. An suthor for their written work, a musician for their songs and has been extended to films, computer games and so on. It varies from country to country but the lenght of copyright runs from 30 to 70 years from the death of the creator. Due to several pieces of legislation this has been extended several times over the last few decades with Disney ensuring that its works remain in copyright. Copyright Law also allows for fair use copying of pieces without permission within given guidelines.

However, there are plenty of arguments that say copyright should be much shorter or even not exist at all as it deprives people from being able to get hold of creative works purely because they live in the wrong place.

So the question is: what should copyright be?

Should a creator have ultimate right to say how and where their work is distributed even if it places restrictions on people being able to access it.

How long should copyright last for? Should it only last a few years after it is created, for the lifetime of the author, or longer?

What are your thoughts?

[The Original An Gadaí]

With regard to copyright duration I'd be happy for copyright to last something akin to a patent 15 years, maybe a bit longer. But life of the author + a bazillion doesn't make sense to me and stymies further creativity imho.

[What Exit?]

Actually I always felt copyright should be shorter and not longer. 30 years seems reasonable with extensions allowed out 10 years at a time if it is still in "print". But even here the max should be 50 years. That means authors, studio and etc. would receive their fair value for their works for the bulk of their lives. I also think for books specifically if a work has been out of circulation for a period of about 12-18 years it should become public domain though a publisher could re-assert rights by choosing to publish again. This would keep works from disappearing. Particularly important for non-fiction works I believe.