>20 years is at least 2x too long. 10 years seems far more reasonable to me.
What about stuff that didn't land initially, but was discovered years/decades later and loved. Should they be denied the right to make a (belated) profit?
Seems like this could be handled by something like:
Either 10 years, or 10 years from when you collect your first dollar, so long as that first dollar is collected within the first 10 years - giving you potentially up to 20 years in total.
That's a ridiculous ad hoc argument. What if you make something, put it on a gumroad, and sell only one copy for 1 dollar (I actually started a shop on gumroad, all things for $1 and I got exactly one sale :D), but 10 years later you're discovered or some of the products is suddenly widely useful, or what if the one person that bought it now uses own reach to sell your product?
I'm not saying 10 years protection is not enough, but the "first dollar" approach I find ridiculous. Maybe there should be regulations where if you earn x% of the initial expenses (it would work at least for companies), then the work is released to public.
What about stuff that didn't land initially, but was discovered years/decades later and loved. Should they be denied the right to make a (belated) profit?