Guide to Copyrights in Canada

Part - 1

Simply put, the Act prohibits others from copying your work without your permission. Its purpose, like that of other pieces of intellectual property legislation, is to protect owners while promoting creativity and the orderly exchange of ideas.Copyright law has become increasingly complex over the years to respond to a sophisticated communications environment. In this high-tech age, there are many new ways of producing creative works as well as of imitating or exploiting them without the creator's permission. The photocopier, videocassette recorder, and personal computer digital reproduction of songs are just a few examples of modern devices that help artists communicate with their audiences, but that also makes it harder to control unlawful use.This guide gives some basic information about the intricate subject of copyright. Your original work is worth a great deal to you. It pays to protect your intellectual property by knowing your rights and how to use them.

Purpose of this guide In this guide we will look at what a copyright is, how it can benefit you, the advantages of registering your copyright, and how to go about it. Keep in mind that this is general information only and does not cover all the complex issues of copyright law.For exact definitions and details, consult the Copyright Act, the Copyright Regulations, and decisions of the courts in specific cases. You can find these texts in many libraries. You can also buy a copy of the Act and Regulations in any bookstore selling federal government publications.Laws enacted by the Government of Canada, decisions and reasons for decisions of federally constituted courts and administrative tribunals are subject to special copyright rules. Anyone may, without charge and without asking permission, reproduce federal laws, decisions and reasons for decisions of federal courts and administrative tribunals. The only condition is that due diligence is exercised in ensuring the accuracy of the material reproduced and the reproduction is not represented as an official version.

The Copyright Office The federal agency responsible for registering copyrights in Canada is the Copyright Office, directed by the Registrar of Copyrights. Registration is official acknowledgement of your copyright claim. It means that the Copyright Office has recorded the details which you provided and gives you a certificate attesting to this fact.In addition to registering copyrights, the Office maintains the official Register of Copyrights, a record of all registrations of assignments and licences for public use. The Office also provides information to the public about the registration process.The records of the Copyright Office are open to the public; you may search through them to find information such as who owns a certain copyright and whether ownership has changed. You can now search the copyright registry, for all copyrights registered after October 1991.

Staff at the Copyright Office does not interpret the Copyright Act for you or counsel you in any matters other than registration or the use of Office records. For professional advice, you should consult a lawyer with knowledge in the field.
The Copyright Office is part of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), an agency of Industry Canada. In addition to copyrights, CIPO is responsible for the granting and registration of other forms of intellectual property.

These are:

• patents — cover new inventions (process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter), or any new and useful improvement of an existing invention;
• industrial designs — the visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament (or any combination of these features), applied to a finished article of manufacture;
• trade-marks — are words, symbols, designs (or a combination of these), used to distinguish the goods and services of one person or organization from those of others in the marketplace; and
• integrated circuit topographies — are the three-dimensional configurations of electronic circuits embodied in integrated circuit products or layout designs.

Copyright ProtectionWhat is a copyright?

In the simplest terms, "copyright" means "the right to copy." Only the owner of copyright, very often the creator of the work, is allowed to produce or reproduce the work in question or to permit anyone else to do so. Suppose, for example, that you have written a novel. Copyright law rewards and protects your creative endeavour by giving you the sole right to publish or use your work in any number of ways. You may also choose not to publish your work and to prevent anyone else from doing so.

What is covered by copyright?

Copyright applies to all original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. Each of these general categories covers a wide range of creations. Here are just a few examples:

• literary works: books, pamphlets, poems and other works consisting of text and computer programs;
• dramatic works: films, videos, plays, screenplays and scripts;
• musical works: compositions that consist of both words and music or music only (note that lyrics without music fall into the literary works category); and
• artistic works: paintings, drawings, maps, photographs, sculptures and architectural works.

The word "original" is key in defining a work that qualifies for copyright protection. Naturally, you cannot obtain a copyright for someone else's creation. Originality can be tricky to determine, however, and many court cases revolve around the question of whether a work has been copied, even in part, from somebody else's work.

Copyright also applies to three other kinds of subject matter in addition to the works listed above:

• performer's performance: performers such as actors, musicians, dancers and singers have copyrights in their performances;
• communication signals: broadcasters have copyrights in the communications' signals that are broadcast;
• sound recordings: makers of recordings, such as records, cassettes, and compact discs, which are called "sound recordings" in the Copyright Act, are also protected by copyright.

Keep in mind that there is a separate copyright for musical work, for example, a song, and for the device, such as a cassette, that contains the song. Separate protection exists because the song and the sound recording are considered two different works.

Copyright consists of legal rights attached to works and other subject matter. Which legal rights apply to which works or subject matter varies. In general, copyright means the sole right to produce or reproduce a work or a substantial part of it in any form. It includes the right to perform the work or any substantial part of it, or in the case of a lecture, to deliver it, and if the work is unpublished, it includes the right to publish it or any substantial part of it.

Copyright in an original work also includes the sole right to:

• produce, reproduce, perform or publish any translation of the work;
• convert a dramatic work into a novel or other non-dramatic work;
• convert a novel, a non-dramatic work or an artistic work into a dramatic work by way of performance in public or otherwise;
• make a sound recording of a literary, dramatic or musical work;
• reproduce, adapt and publicly present a cinematographic work;
• communicate the work by telecommunication;
• present an artistic work created after June 7, 1988, at a public exhibition;
• in the case of a computer program that can be reproduced in the ordinary course of its use to rent it out; and
• to authorize any such acts.

Copyright in other subject matter includes the following rights:

• in the case of a performer's performance which is not fixed, to communicate it by telecommunication and to make a fixation of the performance;
• in the case of a performer's performance which is fixed with the performer's authorization, to make a reproduction of that fixation, or to reproduce a fixation that was not authorized by the performer, and to rent out a sound recording of the performance;
• in the case of a sound recording, to publish, to reproduce and to rent out the sound recording;
• in the case of a published sound recording the performer and the maker of the recording have a right to payment of "equitable remuneration" for its performance in public or its communication to the public by telecommunication;
• in the case of a communication signal a broadcaster has the right to fix the signal, to reproduce any fixation of the signal that was made without the broadcaster's consent, to authorize another broadcaster to simultaneously retransmit the signal;
• in the case of a television communication signal, to perform the signal in a place open to the public on payment of an entrance fee; and
• to authorize any such acts.