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The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, is an international agreement about copyright, which was first adopted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.The Berne convention states that countries of the Union, being equally animated by the desire to protect, in as effective and uniform a manner as possible, the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works, Recognizing the importance of the work of the Revision Conference held at Stockholm in 1967. The Berne Convention rests on three basic principles and contains a series of provisions determining the minimum protection to be granted, as well as special provisions available to developing countries which want to make use of them.
The three basic principles are the following:
Works originating in one of the contracting States that is, works the author of which is a national of such a State or works which were first published in such a State must be given the same protection in each of the other contracting States as the latter grants to the works of its own nationals.
Such protection must not be conditional upon compliance with any formality.
Such protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work. If, however, a contracting State provides for a longer term than the minimum prescribed by the Convention and the work ceases to be protected in the country of origin, protection may be denied once protection in the country of origin ceases. The minimum standards of protection is related to the works and rights to be protected, and the duration of the protection.
The Overview of International Agreements and Treaties suggests that the protection must include “every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression”.Subject to certain permitted reservations, limitations or exceptions, the following are among the rights which must be recognized as exclusive rights of authorization.
It has been stated in the Berne Convention that it gives
- the right to translate,
- the right to make adaptations and arrangements of the work,
- the right to perform in public dramatic, dramatico-musical and musical works,
- the right to recite in public literary works,
- the right to communicate to the public the performance of such works,
- the right to broadcast ,
- the right to make reproductions in any manner or form with the possibility of a contracting State to permit, in certain special cases, reproduction without authorization provided that the reproduction does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author, and with the possibility of a contracting State to provide, in the case of sound recordings of musical works, for a right to equitable remuneration,
- the right to use the work as a basis for an audiovisual work, and the right to reproduce, distribute, perform in public or communicate to the public that audiovisual work.
The Berne Convention also provides for “moral rights,” that is, the right to claim authorship of the work and the right to object to any mutilation or deformation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the work which would be prejudicial to the author’s honor or reputation. As to the duration of protection, the general rule is that protection must be granted until the expiration of the 50th year after the author’s death .
Countries regarded as developing countries in conformity with the established practice of the General Assembly of the United Nations may, for certain works and under certain conditions, depart from these minimum standards of protection with regard to the right of translation and the right of reproduction. The Berne Convention, concluded in 1886, was revised at Paris in 1896 and at Berlin in 1908, completed at Berne in 1914, revised at Rome in 1928, at Brussels in 1948, at Stockholm in 1967 and at Paris in 1971, and was amended in 1979.The Convention is open to all States and happens to be one of the major treaties of the world.
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