Effective December 30, 2022 (the “Copyright Extension Date”), the Government of Canada enacted amendments to the Copyright Act extending the general term of copyright protection for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works from 50 years following the end of the calendar year of the death of the last surviving author, to 70 years following the end of the calendar year of the death of the last surviving author. Complementary revisions were made to Section 7 (Term of copyright in certain posthumous works) as well as Section 9 (Cases of joint authorship) of the Copyright Act. Importantly, copyright term extension is not retroactive, and does not extend to any works in which the copyright had expired before the Copyright Extension Date. As a result, where the last surviving author of a work has died on or before December 31, 1971, the previous copyright term (of 50 years following the end of the calendar year in which the author died) still applies.
Information on our Public Domain page has been updated to reflect copyright term extension.
