Length of the registration process

The registration process takes 3-5 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.

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 If you register the copyright of an unpublished work, you do not have to register again after publication.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.

Additional Information

Agreements: assignments and licences

As the owner of a copyright, you may confer your rights to produce or reproduce a creative work to other people through a legal agreement. There are many kinds of agreements, with the main types being assignments and licences.
An assignment occurs when you transfer part, or all, of your rights to another party. The assignment may be for the whole term of the copyright, or for a certain part of it. In this case, you have given up your rights for a certain part of the copyright, or for the whole term of the copyright. You do not have to register your assignment with the Copyright Office, but it is wise to do so. Suppose the original copyright owner does assign the same rights to two separate parties for the same work. If one party does not register its assignment, the assignment that was registered will be considered the valid one.

A licence gives someone else permission to use your work for certain purposes and under certain conditions, but you still retain ownership. You have not given up your rights.

To be valid, an assignment or licence must be in writing and signed by you, the owner.

Assignments and licences which are considered "grants of interest" in a copyright, may be registered with the Copyright Office. All you have to do is send a certified copy of the original agreement along with the prescribed fee. Registration takes about three weeks. The Copyright Office will retain a copy of the documentation and return your original documentation along with a certificate of registration.

Royalties and tariffs

Royalties are sums paid to copyright owners as commission for sales of their works or permission to use them. For example, a musician is entitled to a royalty every time a radio station publicly plays his or her record. You do not have to pay royalties for private performance, such as playing music in your home. But you do if you are holding a dance or concert, since this is considered a public performance. In many cases, the concert hall, hotel, or other facility will have already made the necessary arrangements for paying royalties.

Tariffs are set fees that users must pay for using certain copyright material. For example, cable companies pay tariffs for permission to transmit programs. Both tariffs and royalties account for many business transactions every day. To help regulate this complex and growing sector of the economy, the Canadian government has set up a public tribunal known as the Copyright Board. This Board has a number of responsibilities under the Copyright Act, such as:

For more information contact:
Copyright Board of Canada
56 Sparks Street, Suite 800
Ottawa ON K1A 0C9

Collectives

Sometimes people find it inconvenient or difficult to administer the rights they hold through the copyright system. In such cases, they might choose to join a collective, that is, an organization that collects royalties on behalf of its members. Collectives, known as "collective societies" in the Copyright Act, grant permission to people to use works owned by their members and determine the conditions under which those works can be used. The organization may also launch a civil suit on behalf of one of its members in the case of copyright infringement.

There is a wide range of collectives covering such areas as television and radio broadcasts, sound recordings, reprography (photocopying), performances, video recordings and visual arts.

One example is a reprography collective called ACCESS COPYRIGHT (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency) that grants licences to photocopy or digitally reproduce copyright-protected works and collects and distributes fees on behalf of its members. Suppose you are the owner of the copyright on a book on the history of Canada: membership in the collective allows it to grant permission to teachers, for example, to copy chapters of your book and collect fees on your behalf.

Remember that you may not make photocopies of material protected by copyright (other than for purposes of fair dealing) without permission, nor may a library do this for you. To seek permission, contact the owner or, ACCESS COPYRIGHT, if the owner is a member.

In Ontario:
ACCESS COPYRIGHT
1 Yonge Street Suite 1900
Toronto ON M5E 1E5

In Quebec:
COPIBEC
1290 Saint-Denis Street 7th floor
Montréal QC H2X 3V7

You may obtain a list of some other Canadian collectives through the Copyright Office or the Copyright Board.

Performing rights societies

A performing rights society is a collective that deals with musical works, collecting royalties on behalf of composers, lyricists, songwriters and music publishers for the public performance or broadcasting of their music. There is currently only one such organization in Canada, SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada).

SOCAN
41 Valleybrook Drive
Don Mills ON M5B 2S6

Government publications

Government publications are usually protected by Crown Copyright. You may seek permission to use or reproduce government works by writing to:

Crown Copyright Officer
Canadian Government Publishing
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Ottawa ON K1A 0S9