White Owl Legal

Today, December 29th is the 5th Day of Christmas, which of course is associated with "five golden rings". On the topic of rings, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and all other works written and published during the lifetime of J.R.R. Tolkien would have entered the public domain on January 1st in Canada. However, Canadian copyright laws were updated earlier this year to extend copyright protection from the author's death plus 50 years, to the author's death plus 70 years. So anyone who was looking to profit off their Hobbit fan fiction will have to wait a little while longer. The Simarillion and other books edited by his son Christopher Tolkien will enter the public domain in 2091.