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>> The Berne Convention
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is an international copyright treaty originally signed in 1889, revised in 1971, and amended in 1979. Signatories of the Convention agree to recognize the moral rights of integrity and attribution of creative works and the economic rights to produce, reproduce, distribute, and perform works of creation.

The treaty established guiding principles for the protection of authored works:

  • Member countries must provide works that originate in foreign states the same protection they give domestic works.
  • Protection cannot be based on any conditions, such as registration in member states; it must be automatic.
  • Protection under the Berne Convention is independent of protection granted in individual states.

In 1988, under international pressure, the United States signed on to the Berne Convention Implementation Act. Up until this time, the U.S. resisted adhering to the treaty's conventions as they would have required U.S. publishers of foreign works to pay royalties and fees to foreign copyright holders, thus causing a significant amount of money to go overseas. By becoming a Berne signatory, the United States ended a long history of noncompliance with international copyright, finally joining the vast majority of developed countries.

In order to comply with Berne, the Act also made some basic changes to the U.S. copyright law, such as eliminating the mandatory requirement of a visible copyright notice (such as ©) for works published after 1989. As of the mid-1990s, 96 countries had signed the Berne Convention.

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