Jim, there is no system of "registration" in England, nor in most Berne Convention countries.

I have not got an up-to date Canadian Act here, nor even an up-to date summary, but according to the summary I have got, as at 1981 (I've been mucking about with this stuff for quite a while) there was no system of registration in Canada either.

Copyright is protected in each jurisdiction, and the courts of that jurisdiction, in accordance with the laws of that jurisdiction. The laws of each jurisdiction usually confer copyright in that jurisdiction in the works of those resident or incorporated in, and works first or simultaneously published in, those other jurisdictions that are party either to one of the multilateral conventions (largely Berne or Universal) or bilateral conventions (now rare). In UK, the conferral by UK law is governed by detailed rules set out in statutory instruments.

For old non-UK works, to check the UK copyright it may be necessary to find out whether the other country involved was a colony, but the statutory instruments of the time should tell you.

For old US or latin-american works, it may sometimes be necessary to chek a different multilateral convention, the Pan-American convention, and its local implementation.

I would not be surprised to find the Canadian courts deal with litigation between two Canadian residents about alleged infringement of copyright outside Canada, but unless the local Canadian law specifically includes authorising as an infringment I would have thought that the court would have to determine the subsistence and ownership of copyright in the non-Canadian place in question.

There is not only one copyright in each work. Every work has (or doesn't have) a copyright in each jurisdiction.

As Gargoyle reminds me - I assume no duty of care, nor does a solicitor-client duty of care arise!

Must do some work now!