One factor that gets missed is the quantity of stuff which only ever gets one release. Not just books and music, though they're what I notice. There's an argument that digital copies, like grey imports, reduce the potential profit from sales in other countries, but the international nature of the media companies rather blows a hole in that argument.

But how many new works will still be in print this time next year? The music industry claims that most artists aren't profitable for the company, so what advantage to them is fifty or seventy or a hundred years of copyright?

How many books, first published ten or twenty years ago, can still be a commercial success today?

Yes, let the creator of a work have the big money, if he strikes lucky. But too many media companies buy the copyright, and never let go of something that they don't even try to exploit.