Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is an international agreement on copyright, adopted in Bern, Switzerland, after campaigning by authors' associations, including one led by the French writer Victor Hugo. It established the principle that works created in one member country must receive protection in all the others without formalities such as registration, a rule known as national treatment, and it set minimum standards for the length and scope of protection. It has been revised several times, most recently in Paris in 1971, and is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The United States, long outside the system, joined in 1989. Today more than 180 states are members, and the convention underpins copyright law across the world.

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