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19 Stan. L. Rev. 499 (1966-1967)
Implications of the Prospective Revisions of the Berne Convention and the United States Copyright Law

handle is hein.journals/stflr19 and id is 529 raw text is: Implications of the Prospective Revisions of the Berne Convention and the United States Copyright Law Melville B. Nimmer* The fact that the United States is not a party to the Berne Copyright Convention has for many years constituted a source of controversy and irri- tation among copyright specialists, authors, and others interested in literary and artistic works on both sides of the Atlantic. The Berne Convention is a multilateral treaty whereby certain minimum standards for the pro- tection of literary and artistic works are rendered mandatory for all mem- ber states. It represents one of the earliest and in some ways most successful ventures into world law. The permanent secretariat of the Berne Union, known as the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellec- tual Property (BIRPI),was organized in 1893, long before the present era of international organizations. Since that time it has effectively administered both the Berne Copyright Convention and the Paris Convention, which deals with patents and other industrial property.' The original version of the Berne Convention was signed by ten countries at a conference in Berne, Switzerland, on September 6, i886. Since that time most of the significant nations of the world have acceded to the Convention, either in its original form or with respect to one of the versions of the Convention adopted at subsequent international conferences. Diplomatic conferences for revision of the Berne Convention have occurred at approximately twenty-year inter- vals.' The next such revision conference will be held in Stockholm during *A.B. 1947, University of California, Berkeley; LL.B. 295o, Harvard University. Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles. The author wrote this Article as a consultant for the United International Bureaux for the Pro- tection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI). The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of BIRPI. An earlier version of this article was published by BIRPI in French in 1966 Ix DROIT D'AurEuR io2 and in English in 2 COS uGH-T 94 (1966). x. See DsiGN LAws AND T -Trs oF THE WoR.u (Bogsch ed. 296o, Supp. 2965). 2. The present members of the Berne Union are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Ceylon, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Leopoldville), Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Denmark, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mada- gascar, Mali, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Union of South Africa, Upper Volta, Western Samoa, and Yugoslavia. 3. The Berne Convention was revised by conferences in 29o8 (at Berlin), 1928 (at Rome), and 1948 (at Brussels). In addition to the revision conferences, an Additional Act and Interpretative Declaration was signed at Paris, May 4, 2896, and an Additional Protocol at Berne, March 20, 1914. The full texts of the various versions of the Berne Convention are reproduced in CoPYRsirr Laws AND TREAT s oF TM WoRLD (UNESCO ed. 1956). The citations to the Berne Convention are to the proposed Stockholm (S/i) revision unless otherwise indicated. 499

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