Help:Public domain

Public domain

This page helps users determine whether a given work is in the public domain in Canada where this site is hosted. For a visualization see Canadian public domain flowchart. See also A Guide to Copyrights from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. If a work is in the public domain in the USA, please post it on Wikisource per its copyright policy.

Section of the Copyright Act of Canada	Work type	Copyright term	Public domain
6	General work	Life + 50 years until year end	Work whose author died through 1975
6.1	Anonymous and pseudonymous work	50 years from publication or 75 years from creation, whichever is shorter (until year end)	Work published through 1975 or created through 1950
6.2	Joint anonymous and pseudonymous work whose authors' identity are all unknown	50 years from publication or 75 years from creation, whichever is shorter (until year end)	Works published through 1975 or created through 1950
7(1), 7(2)	Posthumous work, published before the coming into force of Section 7 on July 25, 1997[1]	50 years from publication (until year end)	Works published through 1975
7(3)	Posthumous work, unpublished at the coming into force of Section 7 on July 25, 1997, whose author died within 50 years immediately before the coming into force of Section 7	50 years from the coming into force of Section 7, whether published or not	Nothing through 2048 as the copyright expiration will be in 2049
7(4)	Posthumous work, unpublished at the coming into force of Section 7 on July 25, 1997, whose author died more than 50 years before the coming into force of Section 7	5 years from the coming into force of Section 7, whether published or not	All works since 2004
9	Joint work	Life + 50 years until year end based on the last death	Work whose last surviving author died through 1975