Bill S-16

This enactment amends the Copyright Act to eliminate an exception to the general rule on ownership of copyright. Under that exception, a person who commissioned a photograph, engraving or portrait for consideration is the first owner of the copyright in the work.

It also eliminates a legal fiction that deems the person who owned an initial photograph, negative or plate at the time of its making to be the author of the photograph, and eliminates a related rule that involves a restricted term of copyright in photographs applicable to certain corporations.

The effect of these changes is that the photographer is the author of a photograph for the purposes of the Copyright Act, and that photographs, engravings and portraits fall under the general rule that gives first ownership of the copyright in a work to the author.

The amendments relating to ownership of copyright apply to photographs, engravings and portraits commissioned after the enactment comes into force; the amendments relating to authorship apply to photographs made after the enactment comes into force; and the amendments relating to the term of copyright apply to photographs not in the public domain at the time the enactment comes into force.