A Guide to Copyrights: Registration of Copyright

• The benefits
• How to register
• Authorship
• Length of the registration process
• Registration fees
• What the registration covers
• Indicating copyright
• Policing your copyright

The benefits

You do not have to register your copyright to have protection in Canada, but when you register with the Copyright Office, you receive a certificate which can be used to your advantage in the event that your work is infringed.

A certificate of registration is evidence that your work is protected by copyright and that you, the person registered, are the owner. In the event of a legal dispute, you do not have to prove ownership; the onus is on your opponent to disprove it.

However, registration is no guarantee against infringement. You have to take legal action on your own if you believe your rights have been violated. Also, registration is no guarantee that your claim of ownership will eventually be recognized as legitimate. Note too, that the Copyright Office does not check to ensure that your work is indeed original, as you claim. Verification of your claim can only be done through a court of law.

How to register

You register a copyright by completing an application and sending it to the Copyright Office, along with the appropriate fee. A form and detailed instructions for completing it as well as the current fee schedule are included with the information in this guide.

Please do not send a copy of your work along with the application. The Copyright Office does not review or assess works in any way, nor does the Office check to see whether the title of your work has already been used. Many works may appear with the same title, but if each work has been created independently, each will have its own copyright protection.

Please note, however, that you may need to send copies of your work to the Library and Archives Canada. Under the Library and Archives of Canada Act, two copies of every book published in Canada, and one copy of every sound recording manufactured in Canada that has some Canadian content must be sent to the National Library within one week of publication. (Your publisher may have already made these arrangements.) For more information on this, contact:

Library and Archives Canada
Legal Deposit
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa ON  K1A 0N4
Tel.: (819) 997-9565
Fax: (819) 953-8508

When your application is received in the Copyright Office, it is reviewed to make sure you have filled it out properly. If necessary, suggestions for changes are made, the relevant information is entered into a computerized databank and a registration certificate is issued.

Once a registration has been issued, the Copyright Office has the authority to make small corrections, such as the removal of clerical errors made in preparing an application or a registration document. However, only the Federal Court of Canada can authorize substantial changes.

Authorship

Since duration of a copyright is usually based on an author's lifetime, it is important for the Copyright Office to know the author's name.

If you are the creator of a work (e.g. writer, artist, composer, or playwright) you are considered its author. In most cases, therefore, you should insert your name and address in the relevant section of the copyright application. If the work was created by an employee of yours, the employee's name should appear on the form as author (even though you own the copyright). If there are two authors of the same work, give the names and addresses of both. If there are many contributing authors, all their names and addresses should be given. However, if the work was created by many people under the direction of an editor-in-chief, that person's name may be given as author.

The author of most types of works is the individual who created the work. For all works normally protected for the life of the author plus 50 years, the author must be an individual as opposed to a corporation.

However, for certain types of works, e.g., photographs, certain cinematographic works, there are special rules defining who the author is. For these types of works, the author may be either an individual or a corporation.

• The author of a photograph is the person who owned the negative or original photograph (if there was no negative, as in Polaroid or electronic photography) at the time it was made.
  
  
• For cinematographic works made prior to January 1, 1994, which do not have an original arrangement, acting form or combination of incidents (e.g. most home videos) the author is the person who owned the negative or original videotape at the time it was made. For other cinematographic works made before or after January 1, 1994, there is no special rule and the author is simply the person who created the work.
  
  
• For sound recordings made prior to January 1, 1994, the owner is the person who owned the master tape or original recording at the time it was made. The maker of a sound recording made on or after January 1, 1994, is the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the making of the sound recording were undertaken.
  
  
• For a performer's performance made on or after January 1, 1994, there is no special rule defining who is the owner. The owner is simply the person who created the work.
  
  
• For communication signals made on or after September 1, 1997, there is no special rule and the owner is simply the broadcaster who broadcasts the work.

When deciding who the author of a work is, you must use the rule which applied at the time the work was created, regardless of when the work is registered.

An application (accompanied by the prescribed fee) must contain the following information:

1. The name and a complete address of the owner of the copyright: some authors prefer to use pen names, rather than their real names, on their published works. You may include your pen name on your application for registration, but you must also give your full legal name. This is necessary because, without your legal name, it would be difficult to determine the full duration of the copyright, i.e., your lifetime plus 50 years.
2. A declaration that the applicant is one of the following: the author of the work; the owner of the copyright in the work; an assignee of the copyright; or a person to whom an interest in the copyright has been granted by licence.
3. The category of the work: you will have to indicate for an application for registration of a copyright, which category or categories best describe your work, e.g., literary, artistic, musical, dramatic.
   
   For an application for registration of a copyright in other subject matter, you must indicate either a sound recording, a performer's performance, or communication signals. For more information on these categories, consult the instruction sheet provided with the application form.
4. The title of the work.
5. The name of the author, and if the author is deceased, the date of the author's death, if known.
6. In the case of a published work, the date and place of first publication. A work is considered published when copies of it have been made available to the public. Also, the construction of an architectural work and the incorporation of an artistic work into an architectural work constitute publication. The following do not constitute publication: the performance in public of a literary, dramatic or musical work, the delivery in public of a lecture, the communication of a work to the public by telecommunication, or the exhibition in public of an artistic work.
7. In the case of an application to register the copyright in a sound recording, the date of first fixation of the recording must be specified.
8. In the case of an application to register the copyright in a performer's performance you will have to specify the date of its first fixation in a sound recording, or if it is not fixed in a sound recording, its first performance.
9. In the case of an application to register the copyright in a communication signal you will have to specify the date of its broadcast.

Length of the registration process

The registration process takes three weeks if the Copyright Office staff reviews your application and accepts it without further questions. If amendments are required, the processing time may be longer. Registration occurs once any amendments have been made and the application is accepted. The Office then issues a certificate of registration.

Registration fees

You must pay a prescribed fee when applying for registration of copyright. That fee covers the review of your application and, if it is acceptable, a registration certificate will be issued. If your application has been found in need, a report will be sent to you. A response to this report will be required within 60 days from the date of the letter; otherwise the application will be abandoned without possibility of a refund.

Send your payment with your completed application form. Payment may be made by VISA, MasterCard, American Express, deposit account, postal money order or cheque made out to the Receiver General for Canada. Payment must be in Canadian dollars or in currency equivalent to the fees in Canadian dollars.

It is also possible to submit an application through electronic commerce. The information is available on the Copyright home page.

An application form and detailed instructions for completing it as well as the current fee schedule are included in this guide.

Foreign applicants should pay by money order payable in Canadian funds.

Registration is valid for as long as the copyright for the work exists. Once you register your copyright, you do not have to pay any additional fees to maintain or renew it. If you register the copyright of an unpublished work, you do not have to register again after publication.

What the registration covers

Normally, each song, book, recording, etc., is considered a separate work and requires a separate application and fee. There is no blanket-type registration for several works by one author. However, if you are registering a book of poems, songs, photographs, etc., you may register the book as one work. Also, note that if the work is published in a series of parts such as an encyclopedia, one registration covers all the parts in the series.

Indicating copyright

There is no requirement to mark your work under the Copyright Act. The Universal Copyright Convention provides for marking with the symbol ©, the name of the copyright owner and the year of first publication, for example, © Jane Doe, 1986. Although not obligatory in Canada, such marking can serve as a reminder to others of a copyright as well as providing the name of the owner. Some countries that are members of the Universal Copyright Convention, but not of the Berne Convention require such marking. You may use this notice even if you have not registered your work.

Policing your copyright

The Copyright Office is not responsible for ensuring that your copyright is not being infringed. This is your responsibility. Suppose a person publishes a novel very much like yours, simply disguising the plagiarism with a few name changes. It is up to you to launch legal action. Then, it will be up to the courts to decide whether, indeed, you have been wronged. However, the Copyright Act does contain criminal remedies which apply to certain types of serious infringement or piracy.

A Guide to Copyrights
| Table of Contents |
| Introduction | Copyright Protection | Registration of Copyright | Additional information |
| Appendix A - Twenty Common Questions About Copyright | Glossary | Tariff of Fees |