Colonial copyright law it is unclear to what extent british copyright law or imperial law starting with the 1709 statute of anne applied to its colonies including canada but the house of lords had ruled in 1774 in donaldson v beckett that copyright was a. The copyright act of canada is the federal statute governing copyright law in canada it is jointly administered by the department of industry canada and the department of canadian heritage the copyright act was first passed in 1921 and substantially amended in 1988 and 1997 several attempts were made between 2005 and 2011 to amend the act but each of the bills failed to pass due to political opposition in 2011 with a majority in the house of commons the conservative party introduced bill. That the government of canada examine measures to modernize copyright policy with digital technologies affecting canadians and canadian institutions including the relevance of technological protection measures within copyright law notably to facilitate the maintenance repair or adaptation of a lawfully acquired device for non infringing