Closed petition Change the law so that all copyright only lasts for two years

Closed on 21 December 2022

The Government should change the law so that copyright only lasts for two years, as opposed to the current situation where copyright can last up to seventy years after the creator’s death. This change should apply equally to all forms of copyrighted work.

Copyright law should compromise between the right of the creator to profit from their work and the right of the public to use that work for further creativity. Due to the growth of the modern economy, modern creators have the ability to profit from their work much faster, meaning that it seems wise to shorten the time that copyright lasts. Boldrin and Levine in their 2006 paper Growth and Intellectual Property suggested that the optimal length for modern copyright to last is two years.