Grandma can make money from her new mysteries and get some from the first five years without needing to charge.
As it is, many works are being irreparably lost to time.
And by their proposal, the first couple extensions would be extremely cheap. It could be a simple form on some copyright.gov website to register your work.
5k/work is not cheap. That's how much publishers may pay for a book. 15k/work is prohibitively expensive for books.
Ok but what if the author had not written a successful book but still needed money for cancer treatment. Maybe we should handle social security and healthcare separately from copyright.
The same thing that happens if grandma worked in a knitting factory and got disabled. Most likely: state pension
So any work for hire, or other aspect would be expensive to renew. Anything owned by a corporation, LLC, or other non humane entity would be expensive.
But if the original author has maintained control of the copyright since it’s inception, I’d be fine giving them a much cheaper renewal price.