The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention: The American Experience
![handle is hein.journals/cjla11 and id is 103 raw text is: The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright
Convention: The American Experience
by HAMISH R. SANDISON*
Until the Second World War the United States had little reason to take
pride in its international copyright relations; in fact, it had a great deal
to be ashamed of. With few exceptions its role in international copyright
was marked by intellectual short-sightedness, political isolationism, and
narrow economic self-interest. The leadership of the United States in
developing and implementing the Universal Copyright Convention
(U.C.C.) in the 1950's represented a sharp and admirable change in di-
rection; but the U.C.C., successful in achieving its limited goals, was
never contemplated as more than a temporary and partial solution to a
fundamental world problem.'
The Berne Convention must remain as the standard par excellence of
copyright protection and our objective must be to bring non-member
countries into international relationships in the hope that ultimately-it
will of course take many years-they will voluntarily accept the Berne
standard and both conventions [Berne and the U.C.C.] will be brought
onto the same plane.'
To many enthusiasts of the Berne Convention, the signing of the
Universal Copyright Convention (U.C.C.) in 1952 appeared to be a
retrogressive step.8 Some feared that it would weaken or even dis-
place the Berne Convention.4 Even its proponents acknowledged that
the U.C.C. was a rather modest copyright arrangement by compari-
son with Berne, a compromise between the high level of automatic
protection implicit in the European concept of the droit d'auteur and
the conditional protection afforded by those Western Hemisphere
* Attorney at Law, Arnold & Porter, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Copyright © Mr. Hamish
Sandison 1986.
1. Ringer, The Role of the United States in International Copyright-Past, Present and
Future, 56 Georgetown L.J. 1050-51 (1968).
2. G.B. Crewe, National Treatment as the Basis for a Universal Copyright Convention, 3
UNESCO Copyright Bull. 3, 6 (1950).
3. Henn, The Quest for International Copyright Protection, 39 Cornell L.Q. 43, 63
(1953); see also Ringer, supra note 1, at 1050, 1062.
4. James, The United States and the Movement for Universal Copyright, 1945-52, 25
Libr. Q. 219, 229 (1955).
5. Henn, supra note 3, at 59; see also James, supra note 4, at 229 and Ringer, supra note
1, at 1062.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cjla11&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention: The American Experience
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