[WikiEN-l] Hijack

[Ray Saintonge]

Matt M. wrote:

>>Material that's in the public domain remains in the public domain
>>forever. Nobody can attack it and nobody can defend it. You can slap a
>>bogus copyright notice on a public domain work, but that does not change
>>its public domain status.
>>
>
><warning: personal interest coming>
>
>Do you happen to know if this is true in Canada? I ask because the Gov't of
>Quebec has several photos on one of their archive websites that are
>definitely old enough to be P.D. but which they claim to have copyright
>over. I'm wondering if I could get away with using them without asking.
>
Sure!  Why not?  I assume that the pictures have a closer connection 
with Canada.  Canada follows the life + 50 rule before material goes 
into the public domain.  U.S. copyright law does not give a person a 
longer copyright period than he would have in his own country.  Thus a 
picture taken in 1920 that is clearly in the public domain in the United 
States could still be copyright in Canada if the photographer was still 
alive in 1953.

Copyright subsists whether on not there is a notice.

Ec