Further to Canada and the U.S. entering into a new free-trade deal a couple of years back, Canada recently formally amended its Copyright Act (the “Act”), to extend the protection term of copyright works to 70 years after death of each author.

Following the example of the U.S. that did so a good while back (after lobbying to save copyright over Mickey Mouse from falling into the public domain), Canada thus just added 20 years to how long a typical work will remain protected for. So doing, Canada joins the ranks of several foreign jurisdictions which already hoped on the longer copyright protection term bandwagon.

As to this, I should point out that the new rule will not be retroactive, so that works already in the public domain prior to 2022 will remain so. Technically, I would also point out that, to my knowledge, the coming into force date remains to be decided, though the Act has been amended, what remains is a mere technicality. So, if what you know about copyright includes the basic rule that such protection generally remains for 50 years after death of each author, you should make a mental note: that general rule is now rather 70 years after death of the author.

With a life expectancy of something like 80 years, in Canada, we’re now looking at works produced nowadays that may remain protected for 130 years or more.