This is a terrific resource for copyright information, thank you for sharing. I’ve been reading a lot about Sherlock Holmes entering public domain and the associated court battles being waged by the Conan Doyle Estate. This has led me to discover that Lord of the Rings will be entering public domain in Canada next year! Does anyone know how that works? Will Canadian companies be able to adapt the Lord of the Rings into movies, shows, etc? Will those movies and shows be allowed to screen the US? Very curious how this will play out, as the Tolkien estate is also notoriously litigious and protective of their LOTR treasure.
Even if copyright in Canada hadn't gone from life plus 50 years to life plus 70, properties that are still valuable tend to use trademark law to keep derivative works from being made. Anne of Green Gables has been in the public domain for a while in Canada. You can download the books off Project Gutenberg with no problems, but if you want to make your Anne of Green Gables Meets Winnie The Pooh crossover comic, Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority Inc. is going to come after you.
That seems like it might be Disney's strategy as well. Winnie The Pooh is public domain, but not the Disney cartoon. Disney's version has the red shirt, so if you want to make a horror version of Winnie The Pooh, he can't wear a red shirt.
Anne of Green Gables has been in the public domain for a while in Canada. You can download the books off Project Gutenberg with no problems, but if you want to make your Anne of Green Gables Meets Winnie The Pooh crossover comic, Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority Inc. is going to come after you.
That's a pretty limited protection though. All you have to do is not include the trademarked phrase "Anne of Green Gables" in your title or marketing. You could still have a trailer where Winnie the Pooh looks over and goes, "Anne, is that you?" and a recognizable version of Anne comes from the shadows or something.
Tolkien was going to enter the Canadian public domain in 2024 and, yes, that would have legally allowed Canadian companies to produce their own adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, for release and consumption in Canada and other countries with life + 50 copyright only (though, realistically, it's very unlikely that any Canadian studio would try to make a fantasy TV show or feature film with no help from Hollywood and no hope of release in America or China, so at best you would get a few books, the commercial equivalent of fanfic, like the James Bond anthology License Expired).
Last year, though, Canada extended its copyright term to life + 70, effective retroactively for authors who have yet to enter the Canadian public domain (though not, thankfully, for authors who are already there) in order to meet its obligations under the USMCA. This is a textbook example of how the US uses trade deals to demand that other countries go along with America's outrageous and oppressive copyright laws. So now Tolkien will not enter the Canadian public domain until 2044.
"While the US finally turned on the public domain spigot in 2019, after a 20-year drought, Canada’s government has now decided to turn its spigot off. On December 30, 2022, Canada is freezing its public domain for the next 20 years with its C-19 copyright law."
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This is a terrific resource for copyright information, thank you for sharing. I’ve been reading a lot about Sherlock Holmes entering public domain and the associated court battles being waged by the Conan Doyle Estate. This has led me to discover that Lord of the Rings will be entering public domain in Canada next year! Does anyone know how that works? Will Canadian companies be able to adapt the Lord of the Rings into movies, shows, etc? Will those movies and shows be allowed to screen the US? Very curious how this will play out, as the Tolkien estate is also notoriously litigious and protective of their LOTR treasure.
Even if copyright in Canada hadn't gone from life plus 50 years to life plus 70, properties that are still valuable tend to use trademark law to keep derivative works from being made. Anne of Green Gables has been in the public domain for a while in Canada. You can download the books off Project Gutenberg with no problems, but if you want to make your Anne of Green Gables Meets Winnie The Pooh crossover comic, Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority Inc. is going to come after you.
That seems like it might be Disney's strategy as well. Winnie The Pooh is public domain, but not the Disney cartoon. Disney's version has the red shirt, so if you want to make a horror version of Winnie The Pooh, he can't wear a red shirt.
That's a pretty limited protection though. All you have to do is not include the trademarked phrase "Anne of Green Gables" in your title or marketing. You could still have a trailer where Winnie the Pooh looks over and goes, "Anne, is that you?" and a recognizable version of Anne comes from the shadows or something.
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Tolkien was going to enter the Canadian public domain in 2024 and, yes, that would have legally allowed Canadian companies to produce their own adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, for release and consumption in Canada and other countries with life + 50 copyright only (though, realistically, it's very unlikely that any Canadian studio would try to make a fantasy TV show or feature film with no help from Hollywood and no hope of release in America or China, so at best you would get a few books, the commercial equivalent of fanfic, like the James Bond anthology License Expired).
Last year, though, Canada extended its copyright term to life + 70, effective retroactively for authors who have yet to enter the Canadian public domain (though not, thankfully, for authors who are already there) in order to meet its obligations under the USMCA. This is a textbook example of how the US uses trade deals to demand that other countries go along with America's outrageous and oppressive copyright laws. So now Tolkien will not enter the Canadian public domain until 2044.
See previous discussion on /r/slatestarcodex.
Cheers, thanks for this info.
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According to the linked site:
"While the US finally turned on the public domain spigot in 2019, after a 20-year drought, Canada’s government has now decided to turn its spigot off. On December 30, 2022, Canada is freezing its public domain for the next 20 years with its C-19 copyright law."
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