The entire intellectual property debate is backwards.
The 'creators' or their descendants, in most cases, aren't the ones who are doing the plebs a favor when ip enters the public domain. It is the public who are doing the creators a favor by pretending that thoughts are equatable to actual property. Once a thought leaves somebodys fruity little mind it's no longer theirs. You can think up a unique set of words or a cartoon mouse, but once it is out of your head, I can say those words or draw that mouse. The only reason you can stop me, is because society decided it is worth pretending that those ideas are the same as actual property so that the creators will be able to make a living bettering society with their works.
The problem is that this idea has gotten twisted beyond the breaking point. To the point that people believe ownership of ideas is the same as owning a rock, and that people who are sick of literally paying forever to protect the ideas of dead men from being used freely, are thought of as parasites.