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. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has A Guide to Copyrights. For a visualization see an archived (no longer current) version of the Canadian public domain flowchart. See the full text of Canada's Copyright Act. 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 (until year end)	Public domain
6	General work	Life + 50 years	Work whose author died through 1975
6.1	Anonymous and pseudonymous work	50 years from publication or 75 years from creation, whichever is shorter	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	Work 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	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7(3)	Posthumous work, unpublished at the coming into force of Section 7 on July 25, 1997, whose author died within 50 years immediately before the coming into force of Section 7	50 years from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 (i.e. through 2047)	Nothing through 2047
7(4)	Posthumous work, unpublished at the coming into force of Section 7 on July 25, 1997, whose author died more than 50 years before the coming into force of Section 7	5 years from the coming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 (i.e. through 2002)	All works since 2003
8	Repealed	Repealed	Repealed
9(1)	Joint work	Life + 50 years until year end based on the last death	Work whose last surviving author died through 1975
9(2)	Non-Canadian work	The rule of the shorter term applies except member states of the North American Free Trade Agreement, i.e. the USA and Mexico
12	Governmental work	50 years from publication with perpetual copyright if never published	Work published through 1975, no unpublished work

Text and commentary

Only sections relevant to the operation of Wikilivres will be considered here. Unless otherwise stated, all references are to the Copyright Act.

Language equivalence — Constitution Act, Subsection 18 (1)

The statutes, records and journals of Parliament shall be printed and published in English and French and both language versions are equally authoritative.

Les lois, les archives, les comptes rendus et les procès-verbaux du Parlement sont imprimés et publiés en français et en anglais, les deux versions des lois ayant également force de loi et celles des autres documents ayant même valeur.

This is an imprtant principle in applying Canadian law generally.

What is copyright — Subsection 3 (1)

For the purposes of this Act, “copyright”, in relation to a work, means the sole right to produce or reproduce the work or any substantial part thereof in any material form whatever,...

Le droit d’auteur sur l’oeuvre comporte le droit exclusif de produire ou reproduire la totalité ou une partie importante de l’oeuvre, sous une forme matérielle quelconque,...

This sets up somewhat of an equivalence between "copyright" and "droit d'auteur". It's also important to take not of the term "substantial part". This allows insubstantial parts to be used, but "substantial" is still open to definition.

Works for hire — Subsection 13 (3)

Where the author of a work was in the employment of some other person under a contract of service or apprenticeship and the work was made in the course of his employment by that person, the person by whom the author was employed shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright, but where the work is an article or other contribution to a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical, there shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be deemed to be reserved to the author a right to restrain the publication of the work, otherwise than as part of a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical.

Lorsque l’auteur est employé par une autre personne en vertu d’un contrat de louage de service ou d’apprentissage, et que l’oeuvre est exécutée dans l’exercice de cet emploi, l’employeur est, à moins de stipulation contraire, le premier titulaire du droit d’auteur; mais lorsque l’oeuvre est un article ou une autre contribution, à un journal, à une revue ou à un périodique du même genre, l’auteur, en l’absence de convention contraire, est réputé posséder le droit d’interdire la publication de cette oeuvre ailleurs que dans un journal, une revue ou un périodique semblable.