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Whenever an original written or recorded work or original
electronic work such as computer programs or software is created,
a right in such works is referred to as copyright. The law
of copyright only prevents the copying of original materials
and there are no violations of a copyright unless a protected
work has been copied. A copyright protects the expression
of the work involved, not the idea or the physical material
through which the expression is conveyed.
Copyright Protection
Copyright is the exclusive right to reproduce,
publish and sell a literary, musical, artistic or electronic
work, or a compilation of the same. Copyright laws protect
the expression of ideas and facts, not the facts or ideas
themselves. A work has copyright protection as soon as it
is created. It does not need to be registered or published.
Copyrighted works in Canada are protected for the life of
the author, plus 50 years, after which the work enters the
public domain and can be used by anyone.
Citizens of countries which are members
of international copyright conventions enjoy copyright protection
in these member countries.
Different copyrights can exist in one piece of work. For example,
in a musical work, there is a separate copyright in the lyrics,
the song, its performance and the sound recording. Therefore
it is possible to infringe upon the copyright of a work in
many different ways. Some activities are not considered infringement,
such as the exceptions that fall under “fair dealing”
for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or
news reporting.
Permission to copy or use a work is often
accompanied by the payment of a royalty to the copyright owner
or to a body set up to collect royalties on behalf of a collective
of artists, writers or musicians.
Unregistered Copyright
Copyright is fully protected automatically
on creation of the work. Protection extends to the countries
that are signatory to the Berne Convention which is, for practical
considerations, almost all the countries of the world.
Registered Copyright
Although copyright in a work is fully protected
upon its creation, it is recommended that you register any
copyrighted material with national intellectual property offices.
This registration acts as proof that copyright exists in the
work and that you are the registered owner of the copyright.
A registration also creates a presumption of validity in litigation
and so third parties claiming rights in your copyrighted material
will have the burden of establishing them.
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