How Long Should Copyright Last?

I’ve spoken about copyright previously, but I wanted to get people’s thoughts on how long copyright should last. Obviously it should last as long as the author is alive, but so many publishing houses claim copyright for the life of the author…plus 75 years. Is that fair to the public?

Sure, so long as an author lives, he or she is entitled to the rights over whatever they created, but publishing houses hang onto these rights simply to make more money off of stuff they didn’t create. Is there no public interest in things passing into the public domain at that point? Where would we be had previous houses held onto rights for A Christmas Carol, Macbeth, or Robinson Crusoe?

To my mind, once the author dies, the copyright dies with him or her. After all, dead people can’t claim rights, and I’m not one big to believe that rights pass on to business entities. Otherwise, so many great titles could pass into oblivion as people forget about them in the interim until the copyright finally lapses.