Good News For Creators: Canada Extends Copyright Term

Just under the wire, before the end of 2022, Canada enacted a significant change to its copyright law. December 30 was fixed¹ as the day on which section 281 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1 came into force. The result: copyright protection under the Copyright Act of Canada was extended from 50 years to 70 years after the life of the author (or artist or creator). The extension does not apply to works already in the public domain as of December 31, 2021. Works that would have fallen into public domain at the end of 2022 are however captured by the 20-year extension.

The change brings Canadian copyrights in line with the United States and the rules in some 80 other countries. The US term has been 70 years post-death since 1998, and passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (Sonny and Cher's "I got you Babe" will slip into the public domain in 2068, as a result of Sonny's untimely death before his bill became law). The commitment to