toadfrog, as I understand it, the 'monkeywrench' that extended copyrights present is that copyright protection means not only can you not reproduce or sell someone's work without permission (and fees), but you cannnot produce works that are derivative of that work without similar permission and fees.

I'm told that if patents had been similarly protected in such a long-range fashion in the early part of the 20th C., we would not have TV, automobiles, computers, telephones, and many of the inventions we now take for granted. Even in the drun industry, for God's sake, patents expire after about 20 years. Imagine if you not only could not make aspirin but could not make other drugs that took aspirin as their impetus?