Amendments made to satisfy requirements CUSMA trade agreement 

A provision tucked into the Budget Implementation Act, 2022 amends the Copyright Act to give effect to terms of copyright protection, including the general term, from 50 to 70 years after the life of the author to give effect to one of Canada’s obligations under the Canada–United States–Mexico free trade agreement. The general term, contained in s. 6 of the Copyright Act will be replaced with the following:

Term of copyright

6 Except as otherwise expressly provided by this Act, the term for which copyright subsists is the life of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, and a period of 70 years following the end of that calendar year.

 Order in Council 2022-2019, published on November 17, 2022 has fixed December 30, 2022 as the date that these amendments go into effect. Notably, by virtue of the transitional provisions contained in s. 280, the change from a 50 to a 70 year term will not revive any copyrights that have expired before the coming-into-force date.