Copyright

Copyright & Electronic Rights: Laws and Agencies

The CAA and Copyright

Copyright protection for Canadian writers was the reason for the creation of the Canadian Authors Association in 1921 and the CAA has played a key role in copyright protection for Canadian writers in its long history.

Writers concerned about copyright should consider CAA membership to ensure a continuing strong voice for Canadian writers.

Copyright Infringement Bulletin

An important part of copyright protection for creators is to ensure that those not in compliance are reported and made subject to the penalties for their actions. This section will report such incidents from time to time. We hope this will act as a discouragement to those violating copyright regulations and an encouragement for creators to continue to make their work available.

The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency's Recent Compliance Successes.

Return to Top

Copyright Law

Bill C-60 (An Act to amend the Copyright Act) is available in English and French at:

Bill C-60 (English & Français)
http://www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-60/C-60_1/C-60_cover-E.html
Bill C-60 (English & Français) PDF version (PDF - 309k).
http://www.parl.gc.ca/PDF/38/1/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-60_1.PDF
Questions and Answers about Bill C-60 (English) PDF version (PDF - 23k).
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/billc60/fromgov/questions_and_answers_e.pdf

The Canadian Copyright Reform Bill C-32 received Royal Assent on May 25, 1997. A copy of Bill C-32 is available in English and French at:

Bill C-32 (English)
http://www.parl.gc.ca/35/2/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-32/C-32_4/C-32_cover-E.html
Bill C-32 (Français)
http://www.parl.gc.ca/35/2/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-32/C-32_4/C-32_cover-F.html

The Copyright Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage in co-operation with the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate of Industry Canada, is responsible for formulating and implementing an integrated Canadian copyright policy.
http://www.pch.gc.ca/culture/cult_ind/cpb-pdd/english.htm

Copyright Reform Process hosted by the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate at Industry Canada and the Copyright Policy Branch at the Department of Canadian Heritage.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/incrp-prda.nsf/vwGeneratedInterE/Home

Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines from the Government of Canada's Competition Bureau.
http://cb-bc.gc.ca/epic/internet/incb-bc.nsf/vwGeneratedInterE/ct01992e.html

Compleat World Copyright - "the most exhaustive source of copyright information on the web."
http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com

Intellectual Property in the Global Village by Harry Hillman Chartrand. For those that need all the facts, the author recently self-published a new book The Compleat Canadian Copyright Act: Current, Past & Proposed Provisions of the Act 1921 to 1997 for CDN$99.00 plus GST.
http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v1n4/chartrand/chartrand.html

Copyrightlaws.com is an informative Web site devoted to international copyright law, digital property, media, and other intellectual property issues by lawyer and writer Lesley Ellen Harris.
http://www.copyrightlaws.com

Intellectual Property by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
http://www.eff.org/IP

The Berne Convention Treaty.
http://www.wipo.org/treaties/ip/berne

The U.S. Copyright Act.
http://www.loc.gov/copyright

Return to Top

Copyright Agencies

Access Copyright (1-800-893-5777) has replaced CANCOPY.
http://www.accesscopyright.ca

The Canadian Authors Association maintains a Access Copyright group membership and encourages individuals with published material to register as an individual member.
If your writing is published in a format that may be copied onto a Web site, CD-ROM, electronic database or other digital storage medium and sold you should register.

Seeking the Copyright Owner?

Kristin Demuth, Membership Officer at The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, offers the following advice when seeking the copyright owner of a literary piece:

The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency does have an agreement with the Copyright Board of Canada, which is the only body in the country that can issue a licence allowing someone to use copyrighted material when the copyright owner is unlocatable. Requests for such licences must be submitted to the Copyright Board, and they make the final decision, but The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency assists with trying to locate the rightsholder and setting an appropriate fee.
Before approaching the Copyright Board it must the shown that the potential user has done a thorough search for the rightsholder. We suggest trying the publisher as a starting point. However, there are a number of other sources we use ourselves in searching for rightsholders.
The National Library's AMICUS Web lets you search over 25 million full records from 1,300 Canadian libraries. For magazines, Publist is a very good site for tracking down publishers of periodicals and scholarly journals. The Library of Congress also has a site for searching its bibliographic databases. We also make use of Canada 411 and other Internet phone directories when trying to find individual creators.
We also consult Books in Print, both in print and on CD-ROM. It comes in both Canadian and International versions. For tracking down publishers we recommend the Book Trade in Canada, the Literary Marketplace and the Quill & Quire directories. The Q&Q directories are published seasonally and are especially useful in cases where publishers have been sold, gone out of business or sold lists because they include listings of which publishers represent other publishers or agency lines.
If someone has consulted a number of these sources and still cannot track down a rightsholder, then we would advise that they contact the Copyright Board. The Board's phone number is (613) 952-8621.
While we will try to assist people in locating rightsholders, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency just does not have the manpower to devote to this as a full time service.

Note: There is a section on the Access Copyright Website devoted to unlocatable copyright holders.

Canadian Copyright Institute is an association of creators, producers, publishers and distributors of copyright works.
http://www.thecci.ca

fairshare.ca engages young people (grade 7 and up) in dialogues about digital civics—creating new models of fair sharing in the future.
http://www.fair-share.ca

Copyright Central will help you obtain authorization to copy printed works or include parts of works in a digital medium such as CD-ROMs.
http://www.copyrightcentral.ca

The Electronics Rights Licensing Agency (TERLA) was dissolved and has turned the responsibility for the protection of writers' electronic rights to The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). The TERLA Web site is no longer available.

Public Lending Right Commission
http://www.plr-dpp.ca/PLR/default-e.asp

Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
http://cipo.gc.ca

CIPO Guide to Copyrights has forms, publications, e-services and copyright links.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/cp_main-e.html?icservices=e_cop
CIPO Guide to Trade-marks has everything from the basic information to searches to how you register a trade-mark or word-mark.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/tm/tm_main-e.html

National Library of Canada on Copyright.
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/8/9/index-e.html

U.S. Copyright Office.
http://www.copyright.gov

World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO).
http://www.wipo.int

The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society collects revenue from photocopying and other re-uses of written work and distributes it to 35,000 writers in the U.K. and elsewhere
http://www.alco.co.uk

Return to Top

Links to Other Copyright Pages

Law.com Technical Law Practice Center deals with the struggle to apply older laws to new technologies.
http://www.law.com/professionals/techlaw.html

Information Policy: Copyright and Intellectual Property has a large number of links related to intellectual property.
http://www.ifla.org/II/cpyright.htm

Creative Commons is an alternative way to share intellectual property with a variety of licences in combination: Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works, and Share Alike.
http://creativecommons.org

Copyright Management Center from Indiana University contains a copyright quickguide, fair-use issues, permission issues and copyright ownership. There is information in progress about classroom use.
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu

10 Big Myths about copyright explained is "an attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related to copyright and USENET/Internet publication."
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

The Copyright Website deals with copyright issues on the Web.
http://www.benedict.com

Plagiarism Today discusses the issues of plagiarism, content theft and copyright issues.
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com

Return to Top

Submitting Link Suggestions

We only link to sites relevant to our site content. We do not do link exchanges for SEO, but to enhance the content on this site. See our guidelines, particularly regarding the relevance of your link.

Return to Top

www.canauthors.org/links/copyrite.html
Updated: November 10, 2007