There were 2 big proposals that directly affected Canadian photographers related to the infamous section 13(2):
1) Photographers are now automatically the first copyright holders for any photos taken by them (regardless if there was a commission paid or not) - no more need of a contract to establish that.
2) Person who commissioned (paid for the photos) can use the photos for personal / non-commercial use without the photographers permission - unless there is a contract that states otherwise.
The concern I have is that those were the proposals and the amendments was passed but I don't see the updates in the Copyright Act - so I am not sure if anything changed along the way.
Also, has anyone amendment their own contracts in light of the new proposed changes?
p.1 #2 · Amendments to the 1985 Canadian Copyright Act
Interesting. Even though I'm in the US, I'd also be interested to know whether your parliament passed these changes. Change #1 would bring your law more in line with US law, and is a good change for photographers generally. Change #2 seems sensible, but quite different from US law, where the copyright holder retains exclusive rights absent an agreement.
p.1 #3 · Amendments to the 1985 Canadian Copyright Act
Check out this post on the Canadian Photographers Network website. It includes an excerpt and link to the amended act, which still must go through an order-in-council process before the reforms take effect.
p.1 #4 · Amendments to the 1985 Canadian Copyright Act
Oops! I just realized your original post includes the same link as the one on CanPhoto. Since the act has not passed the order-in-council process, the act won't actually be amended until later this year and none of the changes have taken effect yet.
p.1 #5 · Amendments to the 1985 Canadian Copyright Act
That would explain why the government site has not been updated yet.
Odd - an order in council process usually means there are regulations that still have to be written / added. Most acts become law as soon as they receive Royal Assent. Not sure which regulation needs to be added.
I don't know how reliable this guy is but here is a site with the amendments incorporated:
Section 13(2) - Gone - which is good for photographers, photographers automatically become the copyright holders - unless there is a contract which states otherwise, not the other way around.
Section 32.2 (f) - new rights for person who paid for the photos in the absence of a signed contract.
Section 38.1 - Changes to statutory damage limits.
p.1 #11 · Amendments to the 1985 Canadian Copyright Act
canon pants wrote:
Does this apply to photos taken prior to the amendments?
I'm no lawyer, but I can't imagine that it would be retroactive in any way. Prior to the amendments, the only way to ensure you held the copyright to commissioned photos was to have an agreement in place that clearly stated you retained the copyright.
p.1 #12 · Amendments to the 1985 Canadian Copyright Act
arossphoto wrote:
I'm no lawyer, but I can't imagine that it would be retroactive in any way. Prior to the amendments, the only way to ensure you held the copyright to commissioned photos was to have an agreement in place that clearly stated you retained the copyright.
Section 13(2) was the old section that gave copyright to the person who paid for the photos if there wasn't an agreement in place stating who owned the copyrights.
"60. Subsection 13(2) of the Copyright Act, as it read immediately before the coming into force of section 7, continues to apply with respect to any engraving, photograph or portrait the plate or original of which was commissioned before the coming into force of that section 7."
