[conspire] Mikey Mouse copyright

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Syeed Ali (syeedali at syeedali.com):

> As a Canadian..

We stand on guard with you!  ;->

> From what I understand for us it's presently currently copyright to
> death+70 and sound recordings to death+75 years and that was from recent
> negotiations.

As I understand it, it's complicated.  The base statute, Copyright Act
of Canada, 1921, has been amended several times by Parliament in Ottawa,
the latest _full_ revision having been the 2012 reforms.  However,
further tweaks were in the federal government’s 2015 budget, aka
"Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No. 1" -- to extend the term of coverage
for sound recordings.  And the new rule for that is insanely
complicated.  After the budget act took effect on June 23, 2015:

o  If the sound recording was recorded but not published, then 50 years.
o  If the sound recording was published, then the earlier of 70 years
    from publication or 100 years from recording.  

For purposes of that law, "published" means "copies of a sound recording
were made available to the public", which means that
amateur/non-commercial recordings might not qualify.  And even that is
not a complete description.  It's _insanely_ complicated.  See here:
http://www.entertainmentmedialawsignal.com/the-complexities-of-canadas-extension-of-copyright-protection-for-sound-recordings/

As a second small tweak, starting July 1, 2020, published pseudonymous
or anonymous works got their copyrights extended by 25 years.

> The Berne Convention makes it death+50 in most places

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
as I understand it is a baseline (minimum) for signatory countries.
(There are only a few places in the world that aren't signatories.)

Canada, like most countries but not the United States, ratified the
Berne provisions that cover "moral rights" -- the nontransferrable right
to protect the original creator’s "honor or reputation".  The US treaty
to adopt the Berne regime in 1988 agreed to include _some_ of the Berne
regime's "moral rights", but not the full extensive set (e.g., for
visual works only), reportedly on grounds that extensive revisions to
domestic copyright law would be needed, and we-lot weren't ready to do
that, at that time.

The matter remains under active discussion, though:
https://library.osu.edu/site/copyright/2017/07/21/moral-rights-in-the-united-states/

Canadian copyright law also recognises something called "neighbouring
rights" concerning music, rights related not to the works themselves, but
rather to their performance, transmission and reproduction.  I'm not
completely sure whether that exists in US copyright over music works;
probably yes, but differing in detail, and not referred to by that name.



> It's not my wheelhouse but I got a laugh out of some research.
> 
> In America it's called USMCA (United States–Mexico–Canada
> Agreement)
> 
> In Canada it's called CUSMA (Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement)
> 
> Why?  I don't know.

Er, sure, why not.  ;->

And also:  Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá.

I've heard it said that this treaty is acknowledged by both sides to
improve a bit over NAFTA.  But that is outside _my_ wheelhouse, so I
cannot comment.

> So hey, we're all on board for copyright until the death of the
> corporation + 5-7 business days.

Heh, yes.