Term of Copyright

• Generally, copyright subsists in a work for the life of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which he dies and 50 years thereafter (s.6). That was the rule when this article was first written in 2011. Since December 30, 2022, the period after death is 70 years, not 50. The longer term did not bring back works already in the public domain. If an author died in 1971 or earlier, the life-plus-50 term had already ended by December 31, 2021, and the work stays in the public domain. If an author died in 1972 or later, the work now has life plus 70 years. For example, a work by an author who died in 1972 is protected until December 31, 2042.

• Works of joint authorship? When this article was first written, the rule was life plus fifty years following the end of the calendar year of the last surviving author of the work. Since December 30, 2022, it is life plus 70 years following the end of the calendar year in which the last surviving author dies (s.9).

• When a work is published after an author's death (posthumous)? This special rule covers a literary, dramatic or musical work or an engraving that was not yet published (or, for a lecture or a dramatic or musical work, not yet performed in public or communicated to the public by telecommunication) when the author died. It applies only if the work was published, performed or communicated before December 31, 1998 (s.7(2)). For those works, copyright protection is calculated until the end of the calendar year and fifty years from first publication. Since December 30, 2022, the term is the longer of that period and life plus 70 years (s.7(1)). Works first published on or after December 31, 1998 are covered under unpublished works below.

• Anonymous works? When this article was first written in 2011, where the identity of the author was unknown, copyright subsisted for whichever of the following terms ended earlier: 1) the remainder of the calendar year of the first publication of the work and a period of fifty years following the end of that calendar year; and
• 2)the remainder of the calendar year of the making of the work and a period of seventy five years following the end of the calendar year
• Since July 1, 2020, the rule is different (s.6.1). Copyright in a work by an unknown author lasts until the end of 75 years after the year the work was made. If the work is published within that time, copyright lasts until the earlier of 75 years after the year of first publication and 100 years after the year it was made. The same rule applies to a work of joint authorship where all the authors are unknown (s.6.2). The 2020 change did not bring back copyright that had already expired. If the author's identity becomes commonly known during the term, the ordinary term applies, which since December 30, 2022 is life plus 70 years.

• Special cases re: photographs? Since Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, came into force on November 7, 2012, the copyright in photographs follows the general rule: the life of the author plus fifty years at that time, and life plus 70 years since December 30, 2022. Before Bill C-11, the owner of the original negative or plate was treated as the author of the photograph. Where that owner was a corporation (other than one mostly owned by the individual who would otherwise have been the author), the term was the remainder of the calendar year of the making of the photograph and a further fifty years (former s.10). Photographs whose copyright had expired before November 7, 2012 were not brought back into copyright.
• Before November 7, 2012, where the owner was a corporation, the term of copyright in a photograph was the remainder of the year of the making of the initial negative or plate (or initial photograph where no negative or plate) plus fifty years. If such a photograph was still in copyright on November 7, 2012, its term is now worked out as if the individual who would otherwise have been the author were the author, so it runs from that person's life.
• If the author of the photograph is a corporation in which the majority of voting shares are owned by a natural person who is the author of the photograph, then the term of copyright was (before November 7, 2012) the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, and 50 years following the end of the calendar year.

• Unpublished works no longer have perpetual copyright protection. Under the old section 7, copyright in an unpublished literary, dramatic or musical work or engraving did not start to run out until the work was published, performed in public or communicated to the public. That rule now applies only to works published, performed or communicated before December 31, 1998 (s.7(2)). If a work of that kind was still unpublished on that date, and the author died in the 50 years before it, copyright lasts until December 31, 2048, or until 70 years after the end of the year of the author's death if that is later (s.7(3)). Other unpublished works follow the ordinary life-of-the-author term.

• Crown works? Remainder of the calendar year of the first publication of the work and for a period of fifty years following the end of that calendar year (s.12). The 2022 extension did not change this term.

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