Guest post by Stephanie Kays, of the SLAIS LIBR 561 Information Policy class.

As not to reiterate too many of the issues Michael Geist discussed the night before, Paul Whitney’s talk aimed to contextualize Canada’s international copyright obligations. The significant treaties and areas of focus: the Berne Convention’s 3 Step Test and WIPO Treaty; and the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement.

Canadian copyright is based off the Berne Convention and the Berne three step test appears in all western copyright laws in some form or another, Whitney expressed. Basically, the three step test allows member countries to enact exceptions to exclusive rights to (1) certain special cases, so long as they do not (2) conflict with an normal exploitation of the work, and do not (3) unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rights holder. The three step test was remade in TRIPS, Whitney explained, but the difference is that Berne approaches copyright with the interests of the creators rights, while TRIPS takes the Berne concept and looks at it through the lens of trade. The TRIPS Agreement establishes a minimum level of IP protection that each government has to afford their fellow WTO members. The general rule of the Berne Convention that has been incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement provides a minimum allowance of life of the author +50 years. Canada is right on target with this minimum. Seems like a whole lot of copyright, right? Some countries have gone above and beyond. The United States and the European Union host a “TRIPS-Plus” approach, where the copyright lasts the life of the author +70 years.

In an interesting example of TRIPS-Plus, Whitney turned to author Kurt Vonegutt, who died in April of 2007. His last novel Timequake, was published in 1997. Under US copyright laws, this novel won’t hit the public domain until 2078, 88 years after the book was published. Considering this fact, it is easy to say that very few of the US works created in the last century are public today.

Canada is obliged to comply with the WIPO Treaty (adopted to deal with IT and internet related issues) and some argue that Canada is already in compliance, while others argue that Canadian copyright laws need to be revisited in light of new and ever evolving technologies. Whitney noted that the WIPO Treaty is a model law but that it was created without consultation, so this issue is also up for debate.