Usually at the beginning of the year we are excited to share a list of some of the creators whose works are entering the public domain in Canada that year (for example, see last year's post). However, on December 30, 2022, the general term of copyright protection in Canada changed from the life of the creator plus 50 years to the life of the creator plus 70 years. This changes was agreed to in the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) trade treaty.
This means that we'll have to wait another 20 years for copyright to actually expire in the works we expected to see enter the public domain in 2023. This includes works by poet Ezra Pound, composer Gavriil Popov, actress and poet Meena Kumari, archaeologist Gisela Richter, revolutionary and poet He Xiangning, chemist and Nobel Prize winner Edward Calvin Kendall, artist M.C. Escher and many others. These works are now protected by copyright until 2043.
When copyright expires and works enter the public domain, there are no longer any restrictions on their use - they can be used by anyone, in any way, without permission or payment. Works in the public domain contribute to creativity, support education and research and create economic benefits, while longer copyright protections don't necessarily provide better access to works as is often argued.
Some specific types of works have different terms of protection and will continue to enter the public domain. These include government works protected by Crown copyright and anonymous/pseudonymous works (see Copyright Act ss. 6-12 for details).
For more information about the public domain, copyright term or copyright in general, visit copyright.sfu.ca or contact the Copyright Office at copy@sfu.ca.
Image credits, left to right: excerpt from "Canto VII" by Ezra Pound, from Pound, E. (1972). The Cantos of Ezra Pound.; Chinese stamps featuring paintings by He Xiangning, from Chinese Stamp; formula for thyroxine by Kendall and Osterberg, from Kendal, E.G. (1929). Thyroxine.; "Study of Regular Division of the Plane with Reptiles" by M.C. Escher (1939); "Tukre Tukre" (in Urdu and English translation) by Meena Kumari, from Mukherjee, M. (2017). Voices of the Talking Stars: Women of Indian Cinema and Beyond.
Note: The information obtained from or through this website is provided as guidelines for using works for educational purposes and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Contact copy@sfu.ca with any questions. The Copyright Officer is not a lawyer or legal expert in copyright law and is able to provide a professional and not a legal opinion. A professional opinion is offered for information purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice.
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