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It sounds like a bad deal for Europe if for instance Taylor Swift’s works get life + 70 years but Ed Sheeran’s works get 50 years. Nationalism is the main reason current copyright laws are seen as reasonable - no country wants to give their citizens a worse deal than another country. I’m afraid shortening copyright lengths would have to be done by international agreement.

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That's an individualist and not a society perspective. I think 70 year lock up is a worse deal than 50 for the citizenry in general. So you can flip that. Maybe the artist wants to go to a place with a reduced length of time because it gives them a richer catalog from which to make derivative works (like practically every Disney movie ever made).

The often-used "incentivize innovation" argument can be flipped as well. The luxurious length of time may make our most creative people lazy and thus disincentivizes innovation in the same way that giving a worker, say, 10 million dollars will make them no longer show up for work.

A 50 year copyright term would also apply to foreign works, so Taylor Swift would be out of copyright in the EU after 50 years.

However, under the rule of the shorter term (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_the_shorter_term), the US would be allowed to reduce Ed Sheeran's copyright to 50 years.

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