It looks like Derleth and Eddy may have slipped back into copyright in Canada. The Canadian Press reports that new items for the “public domain in Canada” are now suspended until 2043. Apparently because the Canadian government slipped through “a change to copyright laws” at the very end of 2022.
Canada used to follow the 50-year rule (i.e. in 2022, author died in 1971). In 2022 this should have unlocked, due to death-dates…
* C.M. Eddy, Lovecraft’s Providence friend and collaborator.
* August Derleth.
* Virgil Finlay, the key early Lovecraft illustrator.
But now presumably they’re back under lock-and-key again as we slip into 2023. Though perhaps Canadians readers can clarify. I’m only assuming these creators go back into copyright again, but just possibly there’s also some “once unlocked, always unlocked” assumption in the new law in Canada?
Update: Ah, this is interesting. Derleth’s Lovecraft ‘collaborations’ are still fair game in Canada…
It is not retroactive, but applies to any author, composer or screenwriter whose works would have been added to the public domain between now [30th Dec 2022] and 2043, meaning for 20 years nothing new will be added to the public domain in Canada.
“Not retroactive”. But that’s just from a journalistic report. Digging further finds a more reliable law firm briefing stating…
Bill C-19 is clear that the copyright term extension is not retroactive and therefore will not affect works that are already in the public domain before the amendments come into force.
So it appears that Canadians can freely rewrite and de-cringe the Derleth ‘Lovecraft’ works.
Taking of blockages, I also find that Hippocampus Press once again fails to load from the UK. The problem now appears to be due to having your Web browser use the default Cloudflare DNS server. Switch this to the Google DNS server and the problem vanishes.