OTTAWA -- An obscure but controversial clause -- the so-called Lucy Maud Montgomery provision -- in an otherwise popular legislative bill has apparently met a demise that's rife with almost as many questions as its birth.

The provision, curiously blended in with a bill to unite the National Archives and the National Library into a single operation, would have added between 14 and 34 years of copyright for unpublished works -- but only for those authors who died between Jan. 1, 1930, and Jan. 1, 1949. Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables, died in 1942.

But the provision, which critics saw as a testament to the political power of the Montgomery estate, had a shelf life. The copyright protection of unpublished works from pre-1949, which the provision would have changed, expired at the end of 2003.

So when former prime minister Jean Chrétien prorogued Parliament, as he left office late last year, Bill C-36 was on the roster of legislation that died -- at least temporarily.

The bill was brought back by the new government earlier this year, but the Lucy Maud provision was soon carved off because of the 2003 expiry date on the copyright protection. That revised bill was passed earlier this week by the Senate and is now on its way to becoming law.

Senator John Lynch-Staunton, a Tory whose committee has studied the bill, said there was a lot of criticism of the inclusion of the Lucy Maud provisions.

Howard Knopf, an Ottawa copyright lawyer who had argued vociferously against the Montgomery provision, said the provision never had any business in the bill in the first place.

Supporters of the provision, however, who include most Liberal MPs at the time, said it would have corrected an existing flaw from 1997 changes to copyright law. Those amendments left it almost impossible to find a publisher for the unpublished works of dead Canadian authors, they say, because the period of exclusivity was too short to be financially worthwhile.

Under the 1997 amendments, copyrights of published works enter the public domain 50 years after the writer's death.

For unpublished works, the law limited the rights of the author's estate to 50 years after his or her death plus a six-year window for the estate to either publish or communicate an intention to do so. Before 1997, an estate had perpetual copyright for posthumous unpublished writings.

After those changes, representatives of the Montgomery estate and others lobbied federal politicians and civil servants.

In mid-June, Liberal and opposition MPs on the heritage committee struck a deal that the copyright clauses would be dropped from the bill. But a few days after parliamentarians had recessed for a summer break, the committee unexpectedly convened with only one opposition member present. The deal was blown apart, leaving some members infuriated.

But could the Lucy Maud provision re-emerge in some form?

Critics aren't ready to claim victory just yet. "Unless things change, we won," said Knopf.

The provision's proponents were able to push forward "stealth legislation" before and Knopf said he wouldn't be surprised if the copyright matter pops up again in some form, some time soon.

There's also the lingering question about why an obscure copyright clause was slipped into a bill to merge two bureaucracies. The merger bill provided a fast-moving vehicle to beat the copyright deadline, observers agree, but critics also say the government wanted to pass the Lucy Maud provision without gaining any attention.

"They hoped nobody would notice," Knopf said.

And now, the government has let it fade away, he added, because the quiet approach failed. "When faced with that potentially enormous controversy, they just let the clause die."