Canada has extended the duration of copyright protection from 50 years to 70 years after the death of the author. This amendment in Canadian Intellectual Property law came to honor the requirements stated in the Canada-United States- Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
CUSMA is a free trade agreement between the three countries that is aimed to reinforce the economic ties among the countries.
Intellectual property ownership has a limited duration. The general rule now for copyright protection states the copyright will be in force within the life term of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies and a period of seventy years following that calendar year. This is referred to as life-plus-seventy.
The Canadian government had announced public consultations on 11 February 2021 on extending the duration of copyright, a consultation paper was also released.
Once the life-plus-seventy time period is complete the copyrighted work is termed to be in public domain. The work is then no longer protected by any copyright and can be used freely without any permission or authorization from the copyright owner.
The user also need not pay any compensation to the copyright owner. The term of a copyright cannot be extended nor renewed, a copyright is protected from the moment of its creation, throughout the lifetime of the author, and seventy years after the death of the author.
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