I don't like that idea at all - why should an author be obligated to do ongoing work in marketing / publisher schmoozing / etc to keep their copyright? If someone wants to republish an out-of-print novel that's still in copyright, they should at least have to pay royalties - perhaps it's acceptable if the author can't refuse a reprinting, but they definitely need to get paid. Otherwise small authors would have their IP stolen out from under them by publishers with teams of lawyers: sole proprietors don't have the resources to keep older copyrights "alive."