Copyright Canada

Canadian Copyright Act 1921

Canada’s first Copyright Act was passed in 1921 and entered into force in 1924. Although Canada is not part of the British Empire with its imperial copyright law, the 1921 law was modeled on the law of Great Britain, copyright law 1911, in compliance with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works . ^[one]

Prior to 1988, Canada’s Copyright Act underwent minor changes, while the federal government implemented a series of measures to implement copyright reforms. New technological developments and the emergence of computers, copiers and recording devices led to the recognition that the Copyright Act needs to be updated. Between 1954 and 1960, a commission on copyright and industrial design, known as the "Ilsley" Commission, published a number of articles. Her task was to “find out if there is federal legislation relating in any way to patents for inventions, industrial designs, copyright and trademarks, and whether there are acceptable incentives for invention and research, the development of literary and artistic talents, opportunities for creativity and Canadian public scientific, technical, literary, artistic works. " ^{[2] [3]}

1988 and 1997 reforms

In 1977, the Canadian Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs published a report entitled “Copyright in Canada: Suggestions for Revising the Law”. In 1984, the federal government published the White Paper on Copyright, and in 1985, the House of Commons of the Standing Committee on Communications and Culture published the Charter of Creators' Rights — a report of the subcommittee on copyright revision. The copyright reform process began in two phases: the first phase was started in 1988 and included several amendments to the original Canadian Copyright Act of 1922. Computer programs were included as works protected under copyright. The degree of moral rights was clarified, the abolition of a compulsory license to play music was considered. New license agreements were created for orphan works in cases where the right holder cannot be identified. Rules were adopted to form copyright societies and their work on reforming Canada’s copyright was streamlined. ^[2]

The second stage of the reform took place in 1997, when Canada’s Copyright Law was passed, with amendments to the rights of producers and performers of phonograms, when works were broadcast or publicly shown by radio stations in public places such as bars. The tax on private copying was introduced on empty audio cassettes used for private copying and on the exclusive distribution of book production. New amendments for copyright were introduced for non-profit educational institutions - libraries, museums, broadcasters and people with disabilities. The amendments allowed them to copy works protected by copyright in specific circumstances without the permission of the copyright owner. Fines to be paid for copyright infringement were increased. ^[2]

Bills Amending Copyright Law

Bill C-60

Main article: C-60 bill

In June 2005, the government introduced the C-60 bill as amended to the Copyright Act. The C-60 bill included the abolition of the non-proprietary rights of users of someone else's work regarding photographs, allowing people to receive de facto authorship of anything they are photographing. The bill was not adopted, as the parliament was dissolved after a resolution expressing no confidence in him in November 2005.

Bill C-61

In the summer of 2008, the government introduced the C-61 bill to update the Copyright Act, with many similar points in the C-60 bill and the American DMCA in the United States . Industry Minister Jim Prentice submitted a bill to Parliament to bring it into line with the WIPO treaty. The bill was criticized and not passed. ^[4] The bill was not passed. ^[five]

Bill C-32

Main article: C-32 bill

On June 2, 2010, Federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement submitted a bill Bill C-32 with the full title of the Law Amending the Copyright Law. ^[6] In it, many aspects have been changed regarding the C-61 bill, especially with regard to legal protection. The bill was also criticized and was not passed due to the dissolution of the parliament in April 2011.

Bill C-11

Main article: C-11 bill

On September 29, 2011, the short-named bill on the modernization of copyright law C-11 was submitted to the Canadian parliament by the 41st Federal Minister of Industry Christian Paradis ^[7] The bill is almost identical to Bill C-32, which was not passed due to the dissolution of parliament. Opposition parties opposed the adoption of the law. ^[8] They noted the fact that the law prohibits cracking digital codes even for legitimate purposes and henceforth all “fair acts” ^[9] can be easily removed by using such a digital lock. On June 18, 2012, the bill passed the third and final reading, and received unanimous support from conservatives, the liberal opposition and members of parliament. ^[10] The bill received royal sanction on June 29, 2012.

The main provisions of the adopted law on the modernization of copyright :

• The possibility of legalizing copying for personal purposes, including recording from the air and changing the format of received copies (transcoding, creating a digital copy of physical media, etc.);
• Expansion of the principle of free use of works. With the adoption of the law, it became possible to freely use the works for educational, research, informational purposes, for creating parodies and satirical works, remixes and mashups, home video. Libraries can translate archives into the formats they need (including digitizing works);
• Expansion of the ability to work with orphan works: the regulator issues licenses to work with such works, if sufficient measures have been taken to identify the right holder;
• Prohibition of bypassing digital protection, with the exception of unlocking phones and other devices, as well as in order to protect personal data
• Adoption of the “notice and notice” system, which requires service providers to send violators a notice from the copyright holders. The service provider is obliged to respond to requests from rights holders and delete content that violates copyright or related rights. In this case, the information mediator acquires immunity from prosecution for the actions of users.
• The introduction of technical means of protection of works or "electronic locks" - technologies, devices and components that would protect copyright materials through access control and control over their reproduction.
• The notions of “fair use” have been expanded, which, apart from scientific research, study of personal works for personal purposes, writing critical articles, reviews and news reports, has been supplemented with satirical, parody and educational goals.
• The creation of user content in the new law is allowed by combining or using copyright materials legally posted on the Internet for non-commercial purposes with the obligatory indication of the source of borrowing without prejudice to the interests of the right holders.
• A supplement has been introduced that allows the free use of certain types of works of authorship for private (personal) purposes under certain conditions (a copy cannot be donated, sold or leased).
• Significantly increased fines for the illegal use of copyright materials. For each recorded violation by a court decision, a penalty of $ 500 to $ 20,000 is provided for using the work of authorship for commercial purposes, the amount of compensation for damages for violation of rights for private use is $ 100 to $ 5000.

The next element of the copyright reform in Canada was the high-profile decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada of 2012 on cases involving the problems of free use, licensing fees, and what is considered public reproduction. So the photocopying of educational materials in schools was recognized as free use; music in video games does not require a deduction for public reproduction, it is also possible to sell content in digital form, with deductions required from streaming services; introductory excerpts of sound recordings in music services fall under free use for study purposes.

Supreme Court decisions introduce several new doctrines into Canadian law. Courts must take into account the broad interpretation of the principles of free use and rights of users. Collective rights management societies cannot claim to be subject to licensing fees when new distribution methods become available and must take into account the principles of technological neutrality. One of the goals of intellectual property law is to provide access to educational materials. This applies to teachers and students.

Public Domain

Works that are in the public domain are not protected by copyright law for various reasons. For example, if their protection period has expired, or because they are not considered an appropriate subject for copyright protection. Works in the public domain can be used and copied by anyone without liability for copyright infringement. Works in the public domain are different from works for which the author stated that they were allowed to use the community (for example, the Creative License of the House of Commons).

Copyrights

Copyright Canada grants authors the exclusive right to create and recreate a work. It also includes the exclusive right to:

• publish the work, if it has not previously been published;
• reproduce, display or publish any translation of a work;
• in the case of a dramatic work, you can recycle it into a novel or other non-dramatic work;
• in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work - to make any sound recordings, films;
• in the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, reproduce, adapt and publicly present the work as a cinematic work;
• in the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, transmit the work by telecommunication;
• in the case of a computer program that can be reproduced in the usual manner - rent out;
• in the case of a musical work, to rent a recording in which the work is embodied and to allow any such acts. ^[eleven]
• the author of the work may transfer to the publisher of the work the right to enforce his rights.

Canada’s Copyright Act awards the author a series of personal rights. These rights are called moral rights that cannot be assigned.

Originality

This law also provides protection for all “original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic” works. Careful attention is paid to the use of the word "original." It was found that the basic requirement for the existence of copyright is that the work is original. The definition of originality depends on various factors. For the most part, it depends on what intention the author had for the work.

Fixation

Copyright protects the expression of ideas. The Canadian court considers fixing “for copyright - the expression of an idea in some material form.” Determining the need to distinguish facts from ideas creates difficulties when it becomes necessary to separate thought from expression. It also becomes a foggy line between the idea and its expression.

Property Rights

Author's works of the artist belong directly to the artist himself in most cases, with the exception of engravings , photographs , portraits and works created in the course of work. In addition, these rights may be alienated by assigning and transferring licenses. The moral rights of the artist are inalienable and remain with him for life. As in the case of copyright, moral rights are inheritable.

Copyright Crown

Section 12 of the Copyright Act addresses copyright for all works that are “prepared or published under the direction or control of Her Majesty or any government department.” ^[12] Typically, such copyright is valid for 50 years after the end of the calendar year when work was done. The copyright crown is applied "without prejudice to any rights or privileges of the crown".

Music Records

In Canada, the act of copying music to an audio storage medium for a person’s personal use is not a violation of copyright. ^[13] In addition, the provision of the law on private copying bypasses the question of whether the person making the copy for personal purposes is the owner of a musical copy or not.

Foreign works

Section 5 of the Copyright Law extends copyright protection to all citizens, residents and corporations under the Berne Convention, the World Copyright Convention of the World Trade Organization. The law allows the Minister of Industry to confirm that these rights apply to other countries. They are listed in the rules.

Copyright provisions

According to paragraph 6 of the Law, the copyright in a work lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 50 years from the end of the calendar year of death. ^[14]

For co-authorship, the term for author works extends to the lifetime of the author who dies last, plus 50 years from the end of the calendar year of death. ^[15]

According to. 9 (2), the duration of copyright protection for foreign works generally follows the Shorter Term Rule , with the exception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of the countries (i.e., the USA, Mexico, etc.) - countries that have accepted the North American Agreement free trade. Works from NAFTA countries (NAFTA) are protected for periods consistent with Canadian copyright law. The rule of shorter term is the rule of international law, which consists in determining the legal status of the protection of a work: it is considered to have passed into the public domain in a particular country, if this happened according to the laws of the country or country in which the work was made.

Unknown or anonymous authors

When the identity of the author is unknown (if the author is anonymous or writes under a pseudonym), the copyright lasts either 50 years from the moment of publication of the work or 75 years from the moment of creation of the work. ^[16] However, if the identity of the author becomes widely known, the deadline provided for in section 6 applies. The law also contains provisions for posthumous works. ^[17]

Works with lost authors

The Copyright Act allows anyone who requests permission to use copyrighted works, but cannot find copyright owners to apply to the Copyright Council (“Board”) for a license to use this work. ^[18] Published works are eligible for a license. These works include:

• Published works (for example, books);
• Published audio recordings;
• Video recording of a live concert;
• Fixing a communication signal (for example, a football match broadcast).

The commission may issue a license only for works that are protected by copyright. If the work is not subject to copyright protection (for example, books containing only facts) or if the copyright for the work has expired, the commission will not issue licenses. Before a commission can issue a license, an applicant must demonstrate that reasonable efforts have been made to search for the copyright owner and copyright holder. The commission takes into account many factors in determining whether a “reasonable” effort was made to find the author.

The commission may issue a license for all rights held by the copyright holder. The license will not be granted for a copy of a minor part of the work.

Photos

As in the case of other works, the duration of copyright in photographs is the life of the author plus 50 years. Until June 2012, the owner of the copyright in the engraving, photograph or portrait was considered the person who ordered the work as soon as payment was made. ^[nineteen]

According to section 34 (4) of the Copyright Law, specific penalties are determined by the court. Section 35 (1) states that the violator is liable for financial gain obtained by violating the law, and “such damage to the copyright owner that the right holder incurred as a result of violation of his right” ^{[20] The} penalty for non-commercial violations by the court decision is from $ 100 to $ 5000. For commercial violations, the penalty is by court decision from $ 500 to $ 20,000 for each violation. ^[21]

In addition to the civil sanctions described above, section 42 (1) of the Copyright Law establishes a number of criminal offenses. First of all, these violations, involving the sale or rental of materials protected by copyright. These violations are also subject to fines of up to $ 1,000,000 or imprisonment for up to 2 years. For total production, the maximum fine is $ 25,000 or a prison sentence of 6 months. ^[22]

• Honesty in canada

Literature

• Copyright Transformation on the Internet. Foreign trends, business models, recommendations for Russia. Internet Publishers Association. Moscow. 2013

http://www.copyright.ru/news/main/2012/11/23/avtorskoe_pravo/