Canada has ratified the WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The instruments of ratification were deposited with WIPO on May 13, 2014 and the treaties will enter into force three months later, on August 13, 2014. The entry into force of these treaties triggers the entry into force of certain provisions of the Copyright Modernization Act.

This notice of ratification follows the announcement in March that the government had authorized the Department of Foreign Affairs to take the actions necessary to bring into force for Canada.

The  WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) relate to among other things, making available rights, distribution rights, rights  with respect to the Internet and anti-circumvention protection.

According to the publication in the Canada Gazette regarding the entry into force the Copyright Modernization Act, the following provisions are affected by the entry into force of these treaties:

Sections 2(1) and 5 of the Copyright Modernization Act, S.C. 2012, c. 20, are proclaimed into force on the later of the day on which this Order is published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, and the day on which the WIPO Copyright Treaty, adopted in Geneva on December 20, 1996 comes into force for Canada (P.C. 2012-1392).

Sections 9(3), 9(4), 11(2), 11(4), 11(5), 12(2), 14, 15(2), 15(4), 16 and 50 of the Copyright Modernization Act, S.C. 2012, c. 20, are proclaimed into force on the later of the day on which this Order is published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, and the day on which the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, adopted in Geneva on December 20, 1996, comes into force for Canada (P.C. 2012-1392).

See my earlier posts on the Copyright Modernization Act (part 1) and the coming into force provisions (part 2, part 3).

Thanks to Lesley Ellen Harris for tweeting about these notifications.