Or authors could preëmptively declare their works to be in the public domain upon their death.
I wish Creative Commons had a license like that. Something like CC PDD (Public-Domain-on-Death) which would activate upon the creator's death, allowing them and publishers to freely monetize their work while they're alive, but which would release the work into the public domain immediately after.
It might even incentivize music and book publishers to get their artists health insurance. 😃