Legal Definitions - rule of the shorter term

The Rule of the Shorter Term is a provision of the Universal Copyright Convention. It means that a country is not required to give a longer period of protection to a work than the period it receives in the country where it was first published.

For example, if a book is first published in the United States and is protected by copyright for 70 years after the author's death, but in Canada, the same book is only protected for 50 years after the author's death, then the book will only be protected for 50 years in the United States if it is published there.

This rule is important because it ensures that copyright protection is consistent across different countries. It also prevents a work from being protected for an excessively long period of time in a country where it was not first published.