I think there are some people who think copyright law should be more in line
with patent law.
It is absurd that the guy who invents a car that runs on sea water will lose
his patent protection in less than 2 decades but the guy who writes the
owner''s manual is protected for almost a century.

Copyright protection doesn't really limit people the way patent
protection does, though. If you invent a new way to turn grass into
building panels, nobody else is allowed to do that, If you write
a story about a boy who meets a girl, and they hate each other,
and therefore fall in love, anyone else can write another story
on the same theme. So patents protect a much bigger
chunk of intellectual space, but for a shorter time period.