There are proposals afoot to reduce the copyright term for Australian editions of books from 70 years after death, to 15 to 25 years after publication.

I think this is a highly retrograde step. Authors should be compensated properly, and for long enough. One of the problems with limiting the copyright term to 15 - 25 years is that some books are slow burners. Sometimes they sell relatively few per year, but sell steadily for a long time. Others suddenly become fashionable many years after publication when they are discovered by a new generation of readers.

The 70 years after death protection also seems right and proper to me. If an author has managed to write books because his or her spouse was willing to earn money and/or bring up the kids, then surely the author's estate should continue to be compensated after the author has shuffled off this mortal coil?

To find out more about this proposal, and how you can take part in a campaign to prevents its being adopted, please see this article: Australian Government’s Proposed Changes to Copyright Law