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Simple English definitions for legal terms
Berne Copyright Convention
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A quick definition of Berne Copyright Convention:
The Berne Copyright Convention is an international agreement that says if someone creates something in one country, it will be protected in other countries without needing to do anything special. This means that if someone writes a book in France, people in the United States can't just copy it without permission. The agreement was made in 1886 and updated in 1908, and now there are rules about how long things can be protected and what counts as protected. The United States agreed to follow these rules in 1989.
A more thorough explanation:
The Berne Copyright Convention is an international treaty that provides copyright protection for works created by citizens of one signatory nation in other signatory nations without the need for local formalities. The treaty was first drafted in Berne in 1886 and revised in Berlin in 1908. It is now administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization and sets minimum levels and terms of copyright protection.
For example, if a French author writes a book, it will be protected under copyright law in the United States without the need for the author to register the copyright in the US. This is because both France and the US are signatories to the Berne Convention.
The United States ratified the Berne Convention in 1989 and made changes to its copyright law to comply with the treaty's terms. This means that foreign authors are now protected under US copyright law without having to register their works in the US.