With the beginning of the industrial era and massive communication, and now with Internet, there has been an increasing concern about copyright and its protection worldwide. Without copyright protection, anybody could use another author's created works for free.

Before the end of the 19th century, many countries, mostly European, established copyright regulations to protect their native authors.  France was first, in 1852, to extend copyright to all authors, regardless of nationality. "The need for international protection of intellectual property became evident when foreign exhibitors refused to attend the International Exhibition of Invention in Vienna in 1873 because they were afraid their ideas would be stolen and exploited commercially in other countries." (World Intellectual Property Organization)

In 1886 in Berne (also Bern), Switzerland, 14 countries made an agreement that each of them would provide protection to other contracting countries. Andrew Carnegie represented the United States, but did not sign the agreement. The United States of America did not join the Berne Union till 1989.  Before that the United States “… was a notorious pirate of foreign copyrighted material.” (Gikkas)

The Berne Convention was officially named International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The Convention took into consideration the latest technology at that time. It took under protection created works such as:

•   Novels, short stories, poems, plays
•   Songs, operas, musicals, sonatas
•   Drawings, paintings, sculptures, architectural works.

The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), the second international convention, occurred in Geneva in 1952, under the patronage of the UNESCO. Rather than joining the Berne Convention, the United States lobbied for UCC, and joined it in 1955.  The UCC contract provides the same copyright for domestic and foreign created works in all countries, regardless of where the work was first published. It protects also translation rights up to seven years.
 
 

The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention were revised at a Paris conference in 1971.  The Paris conference especially took into consideration the needs of developing countries. Now, the Berne Convention protects the following materials with the universal copyright:

• Books, pamphlets, and other printed materials
• Dramatic and dramatico-musical works, and musical compositions
• Drawings and paintings
• Works of architecture
• Sculpture
• Engraving and lithography
• Illustrations and geographic charts
• Plans and sketches
• Translations and adaptations
• Arrangements of music, and collections of various works
• Cinematographic and photographic works.

No copyright automatically protects a created work worldwide. Protection against unauthorized use depends on the national laws of each country. Signing international copyright conventions and treaties, most countries approve the right of protecting domestic and foreign created works under certain conditions.

Some developing countries bypass copyright regulations which are too expensive for them. They allow their citizens a "free riding" policy, which means using intellectual property and copyright without paying.  Software products are especially vulnerable and available for copying and "free riding".  (Gikkas)

Among the countries that do not recognize intellectual property law and copyright, or recognize it only partially, are Brazil, China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and others.  Those countries risk being taken to court and sanctioned. (WIPO)

UNESCO especially encourages developing countries to adopt copyright laws. It helps them to prepare legislation and other policies, and, at the same time, urges them to participate in international summits regarding copyright. UNESCO organizes its activities toward copyright protection according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations, and to the UNESCO's constitution, "assuring the conservation and protection of the world's inheritance of books [and] works of art... and recommending to the nations concerned the necessary international conventions." (UNESCO)
 

Article 17 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in Paris in 1948, says,  "Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others," and "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property."
Article 27 from the same Declaration claims, "Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author." (UNESCO)

UNESCO has been very active and effective in its actions. The organization has sponsored and administered several recommendations and adoptions of the laws in the field of copyright:

•   Legal protection of translators and translations, adopted in 1976
•   Status of artists, adopted in 1980
•   Safeguarding of traditional culture and folklore, adopted in 1989
•   Protection of performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organizations, adopted in Rome in 1961
•   Protection of producers of phonograms against unauthorized duplication of phonograms, adopted in Geneva in 1971
•   Protection of distributions of program-carrying signals transmitted by satellite, adopted in Brussels in 1974
•   Right for the avoidance of double taxation of copyright royalties, adopted in Madrid in 1979

•    Computer programs are protected as literary works
•    Compilation of data or other material can constitute intellectual creation and must be protected by copyright
•    Electronic media is treated as any other media under the Convention
•    Sound recordings, even when distributed in digital form via a computer network, are entitled to copyright protection.

In September 1999, WIPO adopted the Digital Agenda. "The Digital Agenda aims to integrate developing countries into the Internet environment, including through the use of WIPOnet and the electronic delivery of information and services. It also focuses upon adjusting the application of intellectual property law in Internet transactions and the emergence of new norms in this respect." (WIPO)

The latest movement in national and international copyright policy is to make contracts between owners of the digital rights and users, instead of relying only on existing copyright law. (Okerson)(Clark)
 

Relevant Web pages:

International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA)

LLRX.com - Researching Intellectual Property Law in an International Context

UNESCO's Copyright Laws Database

United States Copyright Office (Library of Congress)

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)