I never understood the purpose of posthumous copyright terms.

Dead people don't benefit from copyright, making it pointless for them.

Intellectual property is property and therefore part of a will and an inheritance. The original copyright holder can decide who inherits their rights and how their art can be used, so not every greedy corpo can have a go with the work of someone‘s life without them being there to protect it.

@jestdotty lolwut, have you never heard of rich kids?

It’s same concept like bank just in different form. Think of copyright as a loan you take in bank to play some music.

Except for money you loan dead people things so rich kids can gather dead people things and exchange them for fun because they don’t have to work.

So in your world, if Microsoft assassinates Shigeru Miyamoto, they get to make fake Mario games.

@novasurp So the purpose of posthumous copyright is physically protecting creators of work?

While that would be a valid reason, 70 years is still far too long.