Believe it or not, publishers (and galleries) used to make extensive use of the simple expedient of waiting for the creator of a work to die (often leaving the family/estate without the means for a burial), which is why the posthumous extension exists at all. Mind you, it has grown from the reasonable protection it once was (something on the order of a dozen or twenty years, depending on the jurisdiction -- enough to inconvenience the vultures or to provide a modest widow's pension) to something utterly ridiculous.
It might or might not be. My hope is that the conversation turns toward discussing issues like these instead of either trying to expand copyright or completely obliterate it.
