When you create a work or other subject
matter protected by copyright, you will automatically
have copyright protection provided that, at the time of
creation, you were:
- a Canadian citizen
or a person ordinarily resident in Canada;
- a citizen or subject
of, or a person ordinarily resident in, a Berne
Convention country, a Universal Copyright Convention
country, a Rome Convention country (for sound
recordings, performer's performance and
communication signals only), or a country that is a
member of the World Trade Organization (WTO); or
- a citizen or subject
of, or a person ordinarily resident in any country
to which the Minister has extended protection by
notice in the Canada Gazette.
In some cases, you would
also obtain automatic copyright if your work was first
published in one of the countries included among those
who have signed the Berne, Universal Copyright or Rome
conventions or the WTO agreement, even if you were not a
citizen or subject of Canada, or of one of those
countries.
In short, virtually
everyone living in Canada can enjoy the benefits of
automatic copyright protection. In addition, Canadians
are protected in most foreign countries since most
belong to one or more of the international treaties —
the Berne Convention or the Universal Copyright
Convention, the Rome Convention or are members of the
WTO. Citizens of countries which are members of those
conventions enjoy the benefits of Canadian copyright law
in Canada. Canada also extends protection to certain
non-member countries by way of notice in the Canada
Gazette.
Sound recordings
themselves are protected internationally under the Rome
Convention and under the copyright treaties, but there
is quite a variation internationally as to the nature of
the protection given to sound recordings. In Canada,
sound recordings enjoy a broad range of protection under
the Copyright Act.
