Canadian Writer Lucy Maud Montgomery Lives on via Bill C-36

Bill C-36 (previously reported in E-TIPS on July 3, 2003), underwent third and final reading in Parliament on October 6, 2003.   Despite controversy over whether the copyright amending provisions in it should have been included in legislation merging two federal institutions (the National Archives and the National Library), Canadian law is now more generous in its protection of rights to the unpublished works of deceased authors. The Bill amends the Copyright Act to extend protection to unpublished works of authors who died between 1930 and 1948 to December 31, 2017.   For authors who died before 1930, copyright in their unpublished work expires on December 21, 2003 as currently set out in section 7 of the Act.   In either case, the amendment also provides for an additional 20 years of protection from the date of publication for unpublished works that are published prior to the expiry of their copyright. For the estate of Lucy Maud Montgomery – which came into being in 1942 on the death of the author of Anne of Green Gables – the proposed amendment provides additional protection for Montgomery's unpublished diaries which would otherwise lose copyright protection and enter the public domain on January 1, 2004. Thus some observers have dubbed legislation as the "Lucy Maud Montgomery Copyright Amendment Act". For more information, visit: http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/pda-cpb/neuf-new/index_e.cfm; http://makeashorterlink.com/?A1DB23726; http://makeashorterlink.com/?F5EB12726; or http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/status/status1-e.html. Summary by: Lenni Carreiro If you have questions involving any aspect of copyright law, call Gervas Wall (gwall@dww.com).