7. Under the Copyright Act of 1976, in the United States, authors and creators like Walt Disney were granted copyrights over their creations that would last for the life of the author plus 50 years. What are the tradeoffs involved in granting monopoly rights to an author? In 1998, the U.S. Congress decided to allow companies to extend copyrights that were reaching the end of their 50-year protected period and would be expiring by an additional 20 years.

What do you think about the merits and demerits of that decision?