A Guide to Copyright: Glossary

A Guide To Copyrights (PDF - 3.1 KB - 25 pages)

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A 

Access Copyright

A reprography collective that grants licences to photocopy works and collects fees on behalf of its members.

Artistic work

A visual representation, such as a painting, drawing, map, photograph, sculpture, engraving, or architectural plan.

Assignment

Transfer of copyright from the original owner to another party.

Author

The creator of an artistic, literary, musical, or dramatic work.

B 

Berne Convention Country

A country that is party to the Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, concluded at Berne on September 9, 1886, or any one of its revisions, including the Paris Act of 1971.

C 

Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)

The federal agency responsible for the administration of intellectual property laws (includes the Copyright Office).

Collective

An organization that administers rights granted by the copyright system on behalf of copyright owners who have joined that collective.

Copyright

Provides protection for literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical works (including computer programs), and three other subject matter known as: performer's performance, sound recording, and communication signal.

Copyright Act

Federal legislation governing copyright in Canada.

Copyright Board of Canada

A tribunal that reviews and must approve all tariffs and fees proposed by collectives such as SOCAN, the Canadian performing rights society. The Board can also set royalties when asked to do so by either a collective or a user of a collective's repertoire. The Board also grants licences for use of works when the copyright owner cannot be located.

Copyright infringement

Violation of copyright through unauthorized copying or use of a work or other subject matter under copyright.

Copyright Office

The federal government office responsible for registering copyrights and agreements affecting copyrights in Canada.

Crown copyright

Copyright in works prepared for or published by the government, i.e., government publications.

D 

Dramatic work

Includes plays, screenplays, scripts, films, videos, choreographic works and translations of such works.

E 

Exception

A provision in a copyright law permitting the use of a work by defined user groups without the consent of its creator and without the payment of royalties which use would otherwise be an infringement of copyright. Examples of user groups benefiting from exceptions are educational institutions, libraries, museums, archives, and persons with a perceptual disability.

F 

Fair dealing

Use of works for purposes of private study, research, criticism, review, or news reporting that is not considered to represent infringement of copyright.

I 

Industrial designs

The visual features of shape, configuration, pattern, or ornament (or any combination of these features), applied to a finished article of manufacture.

Integrated circuit topographies

Three-dimensional configurations of electronic circuits embodied in integrated circuit products or layout designs.

Intellectual property

A form of creative endeavour that can be protected through a copyright, trade-mark, patent, industrial design, or integrated circuit topography.

L 

Licence

Legal agreement granting someone permission to use a work for certain purposes or under certain conditions. A licence does not constitute a change in ownership of the copyright.

Literary work

Work consisting of text, which includes novels, poems, song lyrics without music, catalogues, reports, tables and translations of such works. It also includes computer programs.

M 

Marking

Indicating copyright with the symbol ©, the name of the copyright owner, and the year of first publication.

Moral rights

Rights an author retains over the integrity of a work and the right to be named as its author even after sale or transfer of the copyright.

Musical work

Work that consists of music plus lyrics, or music only.

P 

Patents

Cover new inventions (process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter), or any new and useful improvement of an existing invention.

Pen name or nom de plume

A name used by thewriter instead of his or her real name.

Performers and producers rights

A term used to indicate rights of performers and sound recording producers to be remunerated when their performances and sound recordings are performed publicly or broadcast; also referred to as "neighbouring rights."

Performing rights society

An organization that administers rights to perform musical works on behalf of composers, lyricists, songwriters, and music publishers (see SOCAN).

Plagiarism

Using the work (or part of it) of another person and claiming it as your own.

Private copying

Copying of pre-recorded musical works, performer's performances, and sound recordings onto a blank medium, such as audio tape or cassette, for personal use.

Private copying levy

An amount of money established by the Copyright Board on blank recording media made or imported and sold in Canada, payable by manufacturers and importers with the money collected being redistributed to eligible composers, lyricists, performers, and sound recording makers through their professional associations or collectives.

Posthumous work

A work that is published for the first time (or, for certain types of works, published, performed, or delivered in public for the first time) after the author's death.

Publication

Making copies of a work available to the public. The construction of an architectural work and the incorporation of an artistic work into an architectural work are considered publication.

R 

Registration

The formal record of a copyright by the Copyright Office.

Rome Convention Country

A country that is party to the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, adopted on October 26, 1961, in Rome.

Royalty

A sum paid to copyright owners for the sale or use of their works or other subject matter.

S 

Sound recording

A device that reproduces sounds, such as a cassette, record, or CD player.

SOCAN

The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, SOCAN is the only performing rights society in Canada.

T 

Tariff

A standard charge for use of copyrighted works. Usually applies to fees paid by users of musical works and cable companies for the rebroadcast of programs.

Trade-marks

Words, symbols, designs (or a combination of these), used to distinguish the goods and services of one person or organization from those of others in the marketplace.

U 

Universal Copyright Convention Country

A country that is party to the Universal Copyright Convention, adopted on September 6, 1952, in Geneva, Switzerland, or to that Convention as revised in Paris, France, on July 24, 1971.

W 

WTO Member Country

A country that is a Member of the World Trade Organization as defined in subsection 2(1) of the World Trade Organization Agreement Implementation Act.

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