Paul C
MusicFan
Joined: 23 October 2006
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 789
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| Posted: 14 May 2015 at 8:23am | IP Logged
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It happened with such little fanfare that I didn't become aware of it until yesterday, but when Canada's ruling Conservative party introduced its budget implementation bill a couple of weeks ago, it tacked onto it an amendment to Canada's copyright act that will increase the time period of copyright protection for sound recordings from 50 years to 70 years. Since the Conservatives hold a majority of the seats, this amendment will be passed within just a few weeks.
There was a major overhaul of Canada's Copyright Act just a couple of years ago, which had been a very lengthy process (several years). During this process, I kept looking for any information as to whether the time period of copyright protection for audio recordings would be extended but, to the best of my knowledge, during all of the committee hearings and the parliamentary debates, the subject never came up. The purpose of the new act was only to bring Canada's copyright laws "into the digital age". The new legislation kept the time period at 50 years from the end of the year during which the recording was first released.
Earlier this year, a label called Stargrove issued at least two Beatles CDs of pre-1965 recordings. I bought one of them at Walmart (but have not seen them for sale anywhere since). One of them sold enough copies to reach number 19 on Billboard's Canadian albums chart.
The new rules will not be made retroactive. Recordings that had fallen into the public domain under the old rules will continue to be in the public domain. The recordings on Hit Parade's new Hard To Find Jukebox Classics 1964 CD will continue to be in the public domain. But, unfortunately, we should not expect the 1965 edition to see the light of day until the year 2036.
A couple of articles on the issue:
http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/canada-to-extend-artist-c opyright-to-70-years/061544
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/22/copyright-term-exten sion-canada_n_7116454.html
(yes, there exists a Canadian edition of The Huffington Post)
Edited by Paul C on 14 May 2015 at 8:39am
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Topic: Canada to extend copyright to 70 years
