I disagree. Copyright has been extended to last a century beyond the death of the copyright owner. That doesn't serve anyone. The spirit of the copyright law was to inspire creativity without completely depriving the public the use of those works indefinitely. Original copyrights lasted 14 years, but it has been extended over and over by multi-million dollar corporations and private parties who refuse to allow their intellectual property to pass to the public after what was originally determined to be a fair passage of time. Copyrights were meant to initially protect the copyright holder for a reasonable period of time, and then move to provide public access once the copyright as expired. The way it is now, copyright only serves the copyright holder, and will never grant the public the right to use the copyrighted works because that period continues to be extended over and over again.
In addition, where should the line be drawn for, say, a word processor to be considered intellectual property or a common, every day tool? Nowadays, offices use spreadsheets, databases and word processors with the same mindset that a carpenter uses a hammer. At some point, copyrights no longer make sense in my humble little opinion and are a big part of the problem of cross-compatibility between current platforms.
