[Scandiravian]

I think I worded my original post poorly. I am completely in favour of having a fixed time for already created works regardless of the time of the authors death.

In regards to your example, the publisher has a contractual obligation with the author, which is obviously part of the estate.

My argument is that even if the author has a deal with a publisher for a particular book, that should not prevent others from being able to create new books, movies, games, etc based on that book.

As a counter example, imagine a 25 year old, with a wife, who would have been able to create the best game ever in 2010. Unfortunately he dies in 2015.

The game would have sold millions of copies if it was published, but unfortunately the character of Mickey Mouse is integral to it, so because of copyright the game cannot be made until 2024 - 58 years after Walt Disney's death and 96 years after the first appearance of the character.