20 year is ok, but "author's death plus 10 years" is bad because it short enough to create some dreadful incentive for would-be publishers: if author is not willing to deal with you just kill him and wait a decade
That doesn't make sense. It's not like the person who killed them would get a copyright monopoly on the work. Literally anyone could publish it. Do you see anyone getting rich publishing works in the public domain? If that's the case, I need to get myself some of that red-hot Project Gutenberg money.
