Report: “Canada Extends Copyright Protection Another 20 Years to Meet New Trade Obligation”

From The Canadian Press (via CTV News):

There will be no new books, songs or plays added to the public domain in Canada until 2043 after the government squeezed in a change to copyright laws just before the end of 2022.

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The change brings Canada into compliance with a commitment it made under the new North American free trade deal to match its copyright protections with those in place in the United States since 1998. That deal gave Canada until Dec. 31, 2022, to fall in line and it beat the deadline by one day.

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Writer associations have generally been in favour of the changes, saying the more assurance creators have to get paid for their work, the more incentive there is to create.

Academics, librarians, archivists and museums, however, argue that it limits their ability to access and use hundreds of works, most of which no longer have any commercial value.

“The reality is that the vast majority of works that enter into the public domain have very little, typically no commercial value anymore,” said Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa.

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