Michael Geist: Last month, there were several Canadian media reports on how the work of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, had entered the public domain. While this was oddly described as a “copyright quirk”, it was no quirk. The term of copyright in Canada is presently life of the author plus an additional 50 years, a term that meets the international standard set by the Berne Convention. The issue of extending the term of copyright was discussed during the 2009 national copyright consultation, but the government wisely decided against it. Further, the European Union initially demanded that Canada extend the term of copyright in the Canada – EU Trade Agreement, but that too was effectively rebuffed.
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I’m not sure to what extent Canada has with their copyright system, because it seems as though not much is able to be published. I don’t know if it’s limiting in books, or plays, or whatever else it could be. If it’s through plays I know that probably one of the stricter playwrights about their work was Samuel Beckett, and until those years have passed, there is not much you can do to go about changing different aspects of a piece. I haven’t done much with copyrighting, but I know Frank likes to leave his mark just about wherever he goes. Now that Canada has extended their copyright time of an author from 50 to 70 years, what does it prevent? The article doesn’t give much detail as to why this type of ordeal is being a made as big of a deal as it is; but perhaps if I knew more on copyright I would understand it a little bit more.
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