Summary
of Canadian Copyright Law
Canadian copyright law is governed by the
Copyright Act, which protects original literary,
artistic, musical and dramatic works. A partial list
of works which are entitled to copyright protection
in Canada includes: books, newspapers,
dictionaries, manuals, catalogues, magazines,
pamphlets, computer software, paintings,
drawings, design trade-marks, sculptures,
architectural works, engravings, dramatic works,
photographs, films, videos, scripts, maps, lyrics
and musical works.
One very significant right granted to the owner of
Canadian copyright in a work, is the exclusive right
to reproduce the work, (or any substantial part of
the work) in any material form whatever. For
example, the owner of copyright in a book has the
right to stop others from making copies of the
book, (or any substantial part of the book),
whether the copying is by way of a commercial
printer, a photocopy machine, or by way of a
computer image/text scanner. In addition to
acquiring the exclusive right to copy the work, the
owner of copyright in a work also receives an
entire "bundle" of rights, some of which are
specific to the type of work in question. For
example, in the case of a dramatic work, copyright
includes the right to convert the dramatic work into
a novel. In the case of computer software, it
includes the right to rent the software to others.
Each different type of work has its own bundle of
copyrights.
Copyright comes into existence automatically, at
the time the work was created, and, in the case of
most works, it continues until the end of the
calendar year in which the author of the work dies
(regardless of whether the author has sold or
assigned the copyright in the work or not), and
continues for an additional period of 50 years.
There are some notable exceptions to this rule
however. One such exception relates to
photographs, which are protected by copyright
from the time the photograph was taken, up until
the end of the calendar year in which the
photograph was taken, and for an additional
period of 50 years (that is, the termination date of
copyright protection for photographs is linked to
the date the photograph was taken, and not the
date of the photographer's death).
Copyright in a work may be assigned or licensed
to others. All assignments and licenses of
copyright must be in writing to be valid. The mere
transfer of physical possession of a work does not
thereby include an assignment of copyright in the
work.
Each work in which copyright subsists should be marked with a
notice in the following form:"© Smith and
Company, 1996".
That is, the notice should display the copyright symbol ©,
followed by
the name of the owner of copyright, followed by
the year in which the work was published. This
notice is to be displayed in such manner and
location as to give reasonable notice of a claim of
copyright in the work. |
