7 years was the original length of copyright protection. It wasn't meant to be a way to cling to something forever, it was meant to be a reasonable length of time for the original creator to profit from their creation by having an exclusive license to use it. I think some modern industries could make do with LESS time than that, as they evolve much faster. There may well be a few that really could stand to have 10 or 20 years of protection, but…. I can't really think of any.

Again, NOT intended to give someone a lifelong lock on their creation, just enough time to profit from it. The intent was to spur creativity while allowing those that put in the work to profit, not to let people do ONE thing and then rest on their laurels through retirement.

Playing devil's advocate, but if let's say 7 years is the number. You're the holder. Wouldn't hurt you if I, as a giant mega corporation, know I can do better by trying to shut you out of the market for 7 years and then paying you no royalty? The smaller the time the more incentive I would have to try something like that.

Hence the reason monopolies are bad, and collusion is illegal. In such a situation, with proper competition, if one company decided to try that, another would be happy to work with the copyright holder to profit during those initial 7 years.

The burden of finding a way to profit remains with the copyright holder.

Here is my answer to all you!




Yaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!