[mdc]

That kind of implies that everything we create inherently belongs to the government, "they" let us use it for the period of copyright, and then it's theirs again to sell off. I can make a case for copyright ending and creative works no longer having an owner, but I can't make a case (philosophically) for them to automatically belong to the government.

[MarkMc]

But in a democracy the government isn't "they", it is "we". If we all have the right to copy and distribute a particular creative work, then we can collectively decide to trade that right for something we find more valuable (such as cancer research).