14 Facts About Berne Convention

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.

The Berne Convention has 181 contracting parties, most of which are parties to the Paris Act of 1971.

Berne Convention formally mandated several aspects of modern copyright law; it introduced the concept that a copyright exists the moment a work is "fixed", rather than requiring registration.

Berne Convention requires its parties to recognize the copyright of works of authors from other parties to the convention at least as well as those of its own nationals.

Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is prohibited to require formal registration.

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However, Moberg v Leygues held that the protections of the Berne Convention are supposed to essentially be "frictionless", meaning no registration requirements can be imposed on a work from a different Berne member country.

Berne Convention includes a number of specific copyright exceptions, scattered in several provisions due to the historical reason of Berne negotiations.

Berne Convention fails to include Internet safe harbors, as is common in many countries.

Critics have argued for years that the Berne Convention is weak in protecting users and consumers from overbroad or harsh infringement claims, with virtually no other exceptions or limitations.

Berne Convention was developed at the instigation of Victor Hugo of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale.

Berne Convention followed in the footsteps of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of 1883, which in the same way had created a framework for international integration of the other types of intellectual property: patents, trademarks and industrial designs.

Berne Convention was completed in Paris in 1886, revised in Berlin in 1908, completed in Berne in 1914, revised in Rome in 1928, in Brussels in 1948, in Stockholm in 1967 and in Paris in 1971, and was amended in 1979.

Except for extremely technical points not relevant, with the accession of Nicaragua in 2000, every nation that is a member of the Buenos Aires Convention is a member of Berne, and so the BAC has become nearly obsolete and is essentially deprecated as well.

Berne Convention was intended to be revised regularly in order to keep pace with social and technological developments.