🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 62 (from laksa169)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa062.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention","crawl_time":1775754179,"first_indexed_time":1475521545,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,britannica!www,\/topic\/Berne-Convention s443","src_root_hash":"5455945239613777662","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Berne Convention | International Copyright Law & Protection | Britannica","meta_descriptions":["Berne Convention, international copyright agreement adopted by an international conference in Bern (Berne) in 1886 and subsequently modified several times (Berlin, 1908; Rome, 1928; Brussels, 1948; Stockholm, 1967; and Paris, 1971). Signatories of the Convention constitute the Berne Copyright"],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Top Questions\nWhat is copyright?\nWhy is copyright important?\nWho gets copyright protection for their work?\nWhat types of works can be protected by copyright law?\nHow long does copyright protection last?\nWhat happens if someone uses copyrighted material without permission?\ncopyright\n,  the\nexclusive\n, legally secured right to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.\nNow commonly subsumed under the broader category of legal regulations known as\nintellectual-property law\n, copyright is designed primarily to protect an artist, a publisher, or another owner against specific unauthorized uses of his work (e.g., reproducing the work in any material form, publishing it, performing it in public, filming it,\nbroadcasting\nit, or making an\nadaptation\nof it). A copyright supplies the holder with a limited monopoly over the created material that assures him of both control over its use and a portion of the\npecuniary\nbenefits derived from it.\nCopyright developed out of the same system as\nroyal\npatent\ngrants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials. The purpose of such grants was not to protect authors’ or publishers’ rights but to raise government revenue and to give the government control over the contents of publication. This system was in effect in late 15th-century Venice as well as in 16th-century England, where the London Stationers’ Company achieved a monopoly on the printing of books and was regulated by the\nCourt of Star Chamber\n.\nMore From Britannica\nhistory of publishing: Development of copyright law\nThe\nStatute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a\nmilestone\nin the history of copyright\nlaw\n. It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the\npublic domain\n. Similar laws were enacted in Denmark (1741), the\nUnited States\n(1790), and France (1793). During the 19th century most other countries established laws that protected the work of native authors.\nWith the development of technology in communications in the industrial age, there was increasing concern over the protection of authors’ rights outside their native countries. In 1852 France extended the protection of its\ncopyright\nlaws to all authors, regardless of nationality, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switz., in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the\nBerne Convention\n(formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the\nBerne Union\n. The core of the convention was the principle of “national treatment”—the requirement that each signatory country provide to citizens of other signatory countries the same rights it provides to its own citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, membership in the convention gradually grew. In 1988 the United States, long a holdout, finally joined, and by the early 21st century more than 140 countries were party to the convention.\nIn the United States, copyright law is founded on and limited by the\nConstitution\n, which authorizes Congress to create a national copyright system to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…Writings” (Article I, Section 8). In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any\ntangible\nmedium of expression, and it provided that such works include literary, musical, and dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound recordings. Under this legislation, copyright extends to computer programs; a separate statute (the\nSemiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984) affords protection for mask works—two- or three-dimensional layout-design patterns for creating layers of\nintegrated\ncircuits—fixed in a semiconductor chip product. (Under certain circumstances, computer programs may receive patent protection.)\nThe 1976 legislation accorded to the owner of a copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the work, to prepare derivative works, and to perform and display the work publicly. However, these rights were subject to numerous limitations, the most important of which was the “\nfair use\n” doctrine, which permitted the moderate use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, news reporting,\ncriticism\n,\nparody\n, and even (in some contexts) home\nconsumption\n, as long as those activities did not substantially impair the copyright owners’ abilities to exploit “potential markets.” Among the other limitations imposed on the rights of copyright owners were certain compulsory licenses, including licenses for retransmissions by cable-television systems and for the public performance of copyrighted musical works in coin-operated players.\nGo beyond the basics with trusted, in-depth knowledge for professionals, students, and lifelong learners.\nSUBSCRIBE\nThe 1976 legislation substantially extended the duration of copyright in the United States. A 1998 statute went even farther. The general term of copyright protection was established as the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection was set at 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever was shorter.\nThe copyright systems of most other countries are similar to that of the United States, in part because of the harmonizing effect of the Berne Convention and in part because all member countries of the\nWorld Trade Organization\nare now obliged to establish minimum levels of copyright protection. Nevertheless, important differences between the national regimes continue to exist. In the United States, for example, copyrights in works created by employees are commonly awarded to the employers under the “work-for-hire” doctrine, whereas in many other countries employees keep the copyrights in their creations. In most countries, government documents enjoy no copyright protection, but in\nBritain\nthe opposite rule obtains. Countries vary considerably in their treatment of\nsound recordings\n. Many governments are less willing than the United States to excuse putatively infringing activities as “fair uses” and more willing than the United States to protect artists’ rights to\nintegrity\n(i.e., to prevent the destruction or mutilation of their creations) and rights of\nattribution\n(i.e., to be given credit for their creations). Finally, despite the pressure exerted by the WTO agreements, countries continue to differ markedly in their willingness and ability to enforce their copyright laws. In general, enforcement is most vigorous in western\nEurope\nand\nNorth America\nand weakest in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The softness of copyright law in the latter regions is the result of a number of factors, including limitations in the countries’ judicial systems, continued doubts about whether effective enforcement serves the countries’ national interests, and (particularly in China and some other Asian countries) cultural traditions that celebrate faithful imitation and de-emphasize the ideal of artistic genius that provides much of the\nmoral\nforce of modern copyright law.\nLegislatures and courts in some countries have attempted to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges presented by technological advances. In most instances those adjustments have involved strengthening the\nentitlements\nof copyright owners. In 1998, for example, the United States passed the\nDigital Millennium Copyright Act\n, which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and penalized persons who sought to evade technological shields (such as encryption) for copyrighted material. One effect of such legislation was that consumers’ opportunities to engage in activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses” were curtailed significantly. Additionally, in 2008 a U.S. federal appeals\ncourt\nruled that, although they are commonly viewed as contracts,\nfree licenses\n—which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for\nadherence\nto certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the\nlicense\ndisappears, resulting in copyright infringement as opposed to the lesser violation of\nbreach\nof contract. The ruling\nenhanced\nthe protections available to the originators of\nopen-source\nsoftware, which allows readers to view its programming or source code, improve it, then redistribute the resulting software in its modified form.\nThe combination of rapid technological changes and the efforts of lawmakers to adapt to them has made copyright law far more controversial than it used to be. Widely publicized political and legal battles over the appropriate shape of this system of rules continued well into the 21st century. In 2009 a Swedish court convicted the four cofounders of the file-sharing\nWeb site\nThe Pirate Bay\nof contributory copyright infringement for distributing more than 30\nmovie\nand\nmusic\ntracks copyrighted by various entertainment companies, including\nWarner Brothers\n,\nSony\nMusic Entertainment,\nColumbia Pictures\n, and EMI. The issue gained a political footing after Sweden’s\nPirate Party, which campaigned heavily on a platform of copyright and patent-law reform, secured a seat in the\nEuropean Parliament\n. The party had grown by more than 50 percent in the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial.","attrs_markdown":"[![Encyclopedia Britannica](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel\/eb-logo\/MendelNewThistleLogo.png)](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/)\n\n[![Encyclopedia Britannica](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel\/eb-logo\/MendelNewThistleLogo.png)](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/)\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=global-nav&utm_campaign=blue-evergreen)\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=global-nav-mobile&utm_campaign=blue-evergreen)\n\nLogin\n\nhttps:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm\\_source=premium\\&utm\\_medium=nav-login-box\\&utm\\_campaign=evergreen\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=hamburger-menu&utm_campaign=blue)\n\n[Ask the Chatbot](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/chatbot)\n\n[Games & Quizzes](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/browse) [History & Society](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/History-Society) [Science & Tech](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/Science-Tech) [Biographies](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/Biographies) [Animals & Nature](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/Animals-Nature) [Geography & Travel](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/Geography-Travel) [Arts & Culture](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/Arts-Culture) [ProCon](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/procon) [Money](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money) [Videos](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/videos)\n\n[Berne Convention](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention)\n\n[Introduction](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention)   [References & Edit History](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention\/additional-info)  [Related Topics](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/Berne-Convention)\n\n![Britannica AI Icon](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/chatbot\/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5)\n\nContents\n\nAsk Anything\n\n[Politics, Law & Government](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Politics-Law-Government)    [International Relations](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/International-Relations)\n\nCITE\n\nShare\n\nFeedback\n\nExternal Websites\n\n# Berne Convention\ncopyright law\n\nHomework Help\n\nAlso known as: Bern Convention, International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works[(Show More)](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention)\n\nWritten and fact-checked by\n\n[Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/editor\/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica\/4419)\n\nBritannica Editors\n\n[History](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention\/additional-info#history)\n\n![Britannica AI Icon](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/chatbot\/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5) Britannica AI\n\nAsk Anything\n\nTable of Contents\n\nTable of Contents\n\nAsk Anything\n\n**Berne Convention**, international [copyright](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright) agreement adopted by an international conference in Bern (Berne) in 1886 and subsequently modified several times (Berlin, 1908; Rome, 1928; Brussels, 1948; [Stockholm](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Stockholm), 1967; and Paris, 1971). Signatories of the Convention [constitute](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitute) the [Berne Copyright Union](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Union).\n\nThe core of the Berne Convention is its provision that each of the contracting countries shall provide automatic protection for works first published in other countries of the Berne union and for unpublished works whose authors are citizens of or resident in such other countries.\n\nEach country of the union must guarantee to authors who are nationals of other member countries the rights that its own laws grant to its nationals. If the work has been first published in a Berne country but the author is a national of a nonunion country, the union country may restrict the protection to the extent that such protection is limited in the country of which the author is a national. The works protected by the Rome revision of 1928 include every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domain, regardless of the mode of expression, such as books, pamphlets, and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons, and other works of the same nature; dramatic or dramatico-musical works, choreographic works and entertainments in dumb show, the acting form of which is fixed in writing or otherwise; musical compositions; drawings, paintings, works of architecture, sculpture, engraving, and lithography; illustrations, geographical charts, plans, sketches, and plastic works relative to geography, [topography](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/topography), architecture, or science. It also includes translations, [adaptations](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adaptations), arrangements of music, and other reproductions in an altered form of a literary or artistic work, as well as collections of different works. The Brussels revision of 1948 added cinematographic works and photographic works. In addition, both the Rome and Brussels revisions protect works of art applied to industrial purposes so far as the domestic legislation of each country allows such protection.\n\nBerne also spelled:\n\nBern\n\n*(Show more)*\n\nFormally:\n\nInternational Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works\n\n*(Show more)*\n\n[See all related content](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/Berne-Convention)\n\nIn the Rome revision the term of copyright for most types of works became the life of the author plus 50 years, but it was recognized that some countries might have a shorter term. Both the Rome and the Brussels revisions protected the right of making translations; but the Stockholm [Protocol](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Protocol) and the Paris revision somewhat liberalized the rights of translation, in a compromise between developing and developed countries.\n\n![Britannica AI Icon](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/chatbot\/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5)Britannica AI\n\n*chevron\\_right*\n\nBerne Convention\n\n*close*\n\n[AI-generated answers](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/about-britannica-ai) from Britannica articles. AI makes mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.\n\n[copyright](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright)\n\n[Introduction](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright)   [References & Edit History](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright\/additional-info)  [Related Topics](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/copyright)\n\nAt a Glance\n\n[![default image](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/shared\/new-thistle.svg?v=3.178.5)](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/summary\/copyright)\n\n[copyright summary](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/summary\/copyright)\n\n![Britannica AI Icon](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/chatbot\/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5)\n\nAsk Anything\n\nQuick Summary\n\n[Politics, Law & Government](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Politics-Law-Government)    [Law, Crime & Punishment](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Law-Crime-Punishment)\n\nCITE\n\nShare\n\nFeedback\n\nExternal Websites\n\n# copyright\nlaw\n\nHomework Help\n\nWritten by\n\n[William Weston Fisher Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Author of *The Law of the Land: An Intellectual History of American Property Doctrine, 1776–1840* and others.](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/contributor\/William-Weston-Fisher\/5509)\n\nWilliam Weston Fisher\n\nFact-checked by\n\n[Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/editor\/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica\/4419)\n\nBritannica Editors\n\nLast updated\n\nMar. 21, 2026\n\n•[History](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright\/additional-info#history)\n\n![Britannica AI Icon](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/chatbot\/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5) Britannica AI\n\nAsk Anything\n\nQuick Summary\n\nTable of Contents\n\nTable of Contents\n\nQuick Summary\n\nAsk Anything\n\nTop Questions\n\n- What is copyright?\n- Why is copyright important?\n- Who gets copyright protection for their work?\n- What types of works can be protected by copyright law?\n- How long does copyright protection last?\n- What happens if someone uses copyrighted material without permission?\n\nShow more\n\nShow less\n\n**copyright**, the [exclusive](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/exclusive), legally secured right to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.\n\nNow commonly subsumed under the broader category of legal regulations known as [intellectual-property law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-property-law), copyright is designed primarily to protect an artist, a publisher, or another owner against specific unauthorized uses of his work (e.g., reproducing the work in any material form, publishing it, performing it in public, filming it, [broadcasting](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/broadcasting) it, or making an [adaptation](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adaptation) of it). A copyright supplies the holder with a limited monopoly over the created material that assures him of both control over its use and a portion of the [pecuniary](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/pecuniary) benefits derived from it.\n\nCopyright developed out of the same system as [royal](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/letters-patent) [patent](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/patent) grants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials. The purpose of such grants was not to protect authors’ or publishers’ rights but to raise government revenue and to give the government control over the contents of publication. This system was in effect in late 15th-century Venice as well as in 16th-century England, where the London Stationers’ Company achieved a monopoly on the printing of books and was regulated by the [Court of Star Chamber](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Star-Chamber).\n\n[![Gutenberg Bible](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/42\/3642-050-C8589FEB\/Gutenberg-Bible-Mainz-Ger.jpg) More From Britannica history of publishing: Development of copyright law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/publishing\/Development-of-copyright-law#ref398105)\n\nThe Statute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a [milestone](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/milestone) in the history of copyright [law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/law). It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the [public domain](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/public-domain). Similar laws were enacted in Denmark (1741), the [United States](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States) (1790), and France (1793). During the 19th century most other countries established laws that protected the work of native authors.\n\nWith the development of technology in communications in the industrial age, there was increasing concern over the protection of authors’ rights outside their native countries. In 1852 France extended the protection of its [copyright](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/copyright) laws to all authors, regardless of nationality, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switz., in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the [Berne Convention](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention) (formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the [Berne Union](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Union). The core of the convention was the principle of “national treatment”—the requirement that each signatory country provide to citizens of other signatory countries the same rights it provides to its own citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, membership in the convention gradually grew. In 1988 the United States, long a holdout, finally joined, and by the early 21st century more than 140 countries were party to the convention.\n\nIn the United States, copyright law is founded on and limited by the [Constitution](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America), which authorizes Congress to create a national copyright system to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…Writings” (Article I, Section 8). In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any [tangible](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/tangible) medium of expression, and it provided that such works include literary, musical, and dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound recordings. Under this legislation, copyright extends to computer programs; a separate statute (the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984) affords protection for mask works—two- or three-dimensional layout-design patterns for creating layers of [integrated](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrated) circuits—fixed in a semiconductor chip product. (Under certain circumstances, computer programs may receive patent protection.)\n\nThe 1976 legislation accorded to the owner of a copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the work, to prepare derivative works, and to perform and display the work publicly. However, these rights were subject to numerous limitations, the most important of which was the “[fair use](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/fair-use)” doctrine, which permitted the moderate use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, news reporting, [criticism](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism), [parody](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/parody-literature), and even (in some contexts) home [consumption](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consumption), as long as those activities did not substantially impair the copyright owners’ abilities to exploit “potential markets.” Among the other limitations imposed on the rights of copyright owners were certain compulsory licenses, including licenses for retransmissions by cable-television systems and for the public performance of copyrighted musical works in coin-operated players.\n\nExplore Britannica Premium\\!\n\nGo beyond the basics with trusted, in-depth knowledge for professionals, students, and lifelong learners.\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=basics-2026)\n\n![Penguin, ship, mountain, atlas](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/inline-left.webp)\n\n![shohei ohtani, plants, andy wharhol art](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/inline-right.webp)\n\n![Mobile](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/inline-mobile.webp?w=400)\n\nThe 1976 legislation substantially extended the duration of copyright in the United States. A 1998 statute went even farther. The general term of copyright protection was established as the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection was set at 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever was shorter.\n\nThe copyright systems of most other countries are similar to that of the United States, in part because of the harmonizing effect of the Berne Convention and in part because all member countries of the [World Trade Organization](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/World-Trade-Organization) are now obliged to establish minimum levels of copyright protection. Nevertheless, important differences between the national regimes continue to exist. In the United States, for example, copyrights in works created by employees are commonly awarded to the employers under the “work-for-hire” doctrine, whereas in many other countries employees keep the copyrights in their creations. In most countries, government documents enjoy no copyright protection, but in [Britain](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom) the opposite rule obtains. Countries vary considerably in their treatment of [sound recordings](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/sound-recording). Many governments are less willing than the United States to excuse putatively infringing activities as “fair uses” and more willing than the United States to protect artists’ rights to [integrity](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrity) (i.e., to prevent the destruction or mutilation of their creations) and rights of [attribution](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/attribution) (i.e., to be given credit for their creations). Finally, despite the pressure exerted by the WTO agreements, countries continue to differ markedly in their willingness and ability to enforce their copyright laws. In general, enforcement is most vigorous in western [Europe](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Europe) and [North America](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-America) and weakest in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The softness of copyright law in the latter regions is the result of a number of factors, including limitations in the countries’ judicial systems, continued doubts about whether effective enforcement serves the countries’ national interests, and (particularly in China and some other Asian countries) cultural traditions that celebrate faithful imitation and de-emphasize the ideal of artistic genius that provides much of the [moral](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral) force of modern copyright law.\n\nLegislatures and courts in some countries have attempted to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges presented by technological advances. In most instances those adjustments have involved strengthening the [entitlements](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/entitlements) of copyright owners. In 1998, for example, the United States passed the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Digital-Millennium-Copyright-Act), which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and penalized persons who sought to evade technological shields (such as encryption) for copyrighted material. One effect of such legislation was that consumers’ opportunities to engage in activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses” were curtailed significantly. Additionally, in 2008 a U.S. federal appeals [court](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/court-law) ruled that, although they are commonly viewed as contracts, [free licenses](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/free-licence)—which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for [adherence](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adherence) to certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the [license](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/license) disappears, resulting in copyright infringement as opposed to the lesser violation of [breach](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/breach) of contract. The ruling [enhanced](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/enhanced) the protections available to the originators of [open-source](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/open-source) software, which allows readers to view its programming or source code, improve it, then redistribute the resulting software in its modified form.\n\nKey People:\n\n[Dion Boucicault](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Dion-Boucicault)\n\n[Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Philip-Henry-Stanhope-5th-Earl-Stanhope)\n\n[Richard Rogers Bowker](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Richard-Rogers-Bowker)\n\n*(Show more)*\n\nRelated Topics:\n\n[intellectual-property law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-property-law)\n\n[copyright symbol](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright-symbol)\n\n[fair use](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/fair-use)\n\n[digital rights management](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/digital-rights-management)\n\n[copyleft](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyleft)\n\n*(Show more)*\n\nOn the Web:\n\n[Social Sci LibreTexts - Copyright](https:\/\/socialsci.libretexts.org\/Bookshelves\/Library_and_Information_Science\/Library_1600%3A_Introduction_to_College-Level_Research\/05%3A_Using_Information_Ethically\/5.05%3A_Copyright) (Mar. 21, 2026)\n\n*(Show more)*\n\n[See all related content](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/copyright)\n\nThe combination of rapid technological changes and the efforts of lawmakers to adapt to them has made copyright law far more controversial than it used to be. Widely publicized political and legal battles over the appropriate shape of this system of rules continued well into the 21st century. In 2009 a Swedish court convicted the four cofounders of the file-sharing [Web site](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/website) [The Pirate Bay](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Pirate-Bay) of contributory copyright infringement for distributing more than 30 [movie](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/film) and [music](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/music) tracks copyrighted by various entertainment companies, including [Warner Brothers](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Warner-Brothers), [Sony](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Sony) Music Entertainment, [Columbia Pictures](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Columbia-Pictures-Entertainment-Inc), and EMI. The issue gained a political footing after Sweden’s Pirate Party, which campaigned heavily on a platform of copyright and patent-law reform, secured a seat in the [European Parliament](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/European-Parliament). The party had grown by more than 50 percent in the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial.\n\n[William Weston Fisher](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/contributor\/William-Weston-Fisher\/5509) [The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/editor\/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica\/4419)\n\n![Britannica AI Icon](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-178\/images\/chatbot\/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5)Britannica AI\n\n*chevron\\_right*\n\nCopyright\n\n*close*\n\n[AI-generated answers](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/about-britannica-ai) from Britannica articles. AI makes mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.\n\nLoad Next Page\n\nFeedback\n\nThank you for your feedback\n\nOur editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.\n\n*verified*Cite\n\nWhile every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.\n\nSelect Citation Style\n\nBritannica Editors. \"Berne Convention\". *Encyclopedia Britannica*, 12 Apr. 2018, https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention. Accessed 9 April 2026.\n\nCopy Citation\n\nShare\n\nShare to social media\n\n[Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BRITANNICA\/) [X](https:\/\/x.com\/britannica)\n\nURL\n\n<https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention>\n\nExternal Websites\n\n- [Cornell University Law School - Berne Convention](http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/treaties\/berne\/1.html)\n\nFeedback\n\nThank you for your feedback\n\nOur editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.\n\n*verified*Cite\n\nWhile every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.\n\nSelect Citation Style\n\nFisher, William Weston. \"copyright\". *Encyclopedia Britannica*, 21 Mar. 2026, https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright. Accessed 9 April 2026.\n\nCopy Citation\n\nShare\n\nShare to social media\n\n[Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BRITANNICA\/) [X](https:\/\/x.com\/britannica)\n\nURL\n\n<https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/copyright>\n\nExternal Websites\n\n- [National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Copyright](https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC5226179\/)\n- [CORE - The economics of copyright law : A stocktake of the literature (PDF)](https:\/\/files.core.ac.uk\/download\/pdf\/4897291.pdf)\n- [United States Copyright Office - Copyright Basics (PDF)](https:\/\/www.copyright.gov\/circs\/circ01.pdf)\n- [Guides at University of North Texas - What is Copyright?](https:\/\/guides.library.unt.edu\/SCCopyright\/basics)\n- [UC Irvine School of Social Sciences - Copyright vs. Napster: The File Sharing Revolution (PDF)](https:\/\/www.socsci.uci.edu\/lawforum\/content\/journal\/LFJ_2004_compilation.pdf)\n- [OpenStax - Introduction to Intellectual Property - The Basics of Copyright](https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/introduction-intellectual-property\/pages\/3-1-the-basics-of-copyright)\n- [Cornell Law School - Legal Information Institute - Copyright](https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/copyright)\n- [Open Textbooks at UQ - UQ Open Textbooks Author Guide - Overview of Copyright](https:\/\/uq.pressbooks.pub\/open-textbooks-author-guide\/chapter\/overview-of-copyright\/)\n- [Association of Research Libraries - Copyright Timeline: A History of Copyright in the United States](https:\/\/www.arl.org\/copyright-timeline\/)\n- [the University of Chicago Press Journals - File Sharing and Copyright](https:\/\/www.journals.uchicago.edu\/doi\/full\/10.1086\/605852)\n- [The Canadian Encyclopedia - Copyright Law](https:\/\/www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca\/en\/article\/copyright-law)\n- [Social Sci LibreTexts - Copyright](https:\/\/socialsci.libretexts.org\/Bookshelves\/Library_and_Information_Science\/Library_1600%3A_Introduction_to_College-Level_Research\/05%3A_Using_Information_Ethically\/5.05%3A_Copyright)\n\nBritannica Websites\n\nArticles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.\n\n- [copyright - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)](https:\/\/kids.britannica.com\/students\/article\/copyright\/273805)","attrs_readable_markdown":"Top Questions\n\n- What is copyright?\n- Why is copyright important?\n- Who gets copyright protection for their work?\n- What types of works can be protected by copyright law?\n- How long does copyright protection last?\n- What happens if someone uses copyrighted material without permission?\n\n**copyright**, the [exclusive](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/exclusive), legally secured right to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.\n\nNow commonly subsumed under the broader category of legal regulations known as [intellectual-property law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-property-law), copyright is designed primarily to protect an artist, a publisher, or another owner against specific unauthorized uses of his work (e.g., reproducing the work in any material form, publishing it, performing it in public, filming it, [broadcasting](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/broadcasting) it, or making an [adaptation](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adaptation) of it). A copyright supplies the holder with a limited monopoly over the created material that assures him of both control over its use and a portion of the [pecuniary](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/pecuniary) benefits derived from it.\n\nCopyright developed out of the same system as [royal](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/letters-patent) [patent](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/patent) grants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials. The purpose of such grants was not to protect authors’ or publishers’ rights but to raise government revenue and to give the government control over the contents of publication. This system was in effect in late 15th-century Venice as well as in 16th-century England, where the London Stationers’ Company achieved a monopoly on the printing of books and was regulated by the [Court of Star Chamber](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Star-Chamber).\n\n[![Gutenberg Bible](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/42\/3642-050-C8589FEB\/Gutenberg-Bible-Mainz-Ger.jpg) More From Britannica history of publishing: Development of copyright law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/publishing\/Development-of-copyright-law#ref398105)\n\nThe Statute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a [milestone](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/milestone) in the history of copyright [law](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/law). It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the [public domain](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/public-domain). Similar laws were enacted in Denmark (1741), the [United States](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States) (1790), and France (1793). During the 19th century most other countries established laws that protected the work of native authors.\n\nWith the development of technology in communications in the industrial age, there was increasing concern over the protection of authors’ rights outside their native countries. In 1852 France extended the protection of its [copyright](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/copyright) laws to all authors, regardless of nationality, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switz., in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the [Berne Convention](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Convention) (formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the [Berne Union](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Berne-Union). The core of the convention was the principle of “national treatment”—the requirement that each signatory country provide to citizens of other signatory countries the same rights it provides to its own citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, membership in the convention gradually grew. In 1988 the United States, long a holdout, finally joined, and by the early 21st century more than 140 countries were party to the convention.\n\nIn the United States, copyright law is founded on and limited by the [Constitution](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America), which authorizes Congress to create a national copyright system to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…Writings” (Article I, Section 8). In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any [tangible](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/tangible) medium of expression, and it provided that such works include literary, musical, and dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound recordings. Under this legislation, copyright extends to computer programs; a separate statute (the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984) affords protection for mask works—two- or three-dimensional layout-design patterns for creating layers of [integrated](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrated) circuits—fixed in a semiconductor chip product. (Under certain circumstances, computer programs may receive patent protection.)\n\nThe 1976 legislation accorded to the owner of a copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the work, to prepare derivative works, and to perform and display the work publicly. However, these rights were subject to numerous limitations, the most important of which was the “[fair use](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/fair-use)” doctrine, which permitted the moderate use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, news reporting, [criticism](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism), [parody](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/parody-literature), and even (in some contexts) home [consumption](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consumption), as long as those activities did not substantially impair the copyright owners’ abilities to exploit “potential markets.” Among the other limitations imposed on the rights of copyright owners were certain compulsory licenses, including licenses for retransmissions by cable-television systems and for the public performance of copyrighted musical works in coin-operated players.\n\nGo beyond the basics with trusted, in-depth knowledge for professionals, students, and lifelong learners.\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=basics-2026)\n\n![Penguin, ship, mountain, atlas](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/inline-left.webp)\n\n![shohei ohtani, plants, andy wharhol art](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/inline-right.webp)\n\n![Mobile](https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/inline-mobile.webp?w=400)\n\nThe 1976 legislation substantially extended the duration of copyright in the United States. A 1998 statute went even farther. The general term of copyright protection was established as the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection was set at 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever was shorter.\n\nThe copyright systems of most other countries are similar to that of the United States, in part because of the harmonizing effect of the Berne Convention and in part because all member countries of the [World Trade Organization](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/World-Trade-Organization) are now obliged to establish minimum levels of copyright protection. Nevertheless, important differences between the national regimes continue to exist. In the United States, for example, copyrights in works created by employees are commonly awarded to the employers under the “work-for-hire” doctrine, whereas in many other countries employees keep the copyrights in their creations. In most countries, government documents enjoy no copyright protection, but in [Britain](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom) the opposite rule obtains. Countries vary considerably in their treatment of [sound recordings](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/sound-recording). Many governments are less willing than the United States to excuse putatively infringing activities as “fair uses” and more willing than the United States to protect artists’ rights to [integrity](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrity) (i.e., to prevent the destruction or mutilation of their creations) and rights of [attribution](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/attribution) (i.e., to be given credit for their creations). Finally, despite the pressure exerted by the WTO agreements, countries continue to differ markedly in their willingness and ability to enforce their copyright laws. In general, enforcement is most vigorous in western [Europe](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Europe) and [North America](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-America) and weakest in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The softness of copyright law in the latter regions is the result of a number of factors, including limitations in the countries’ judicial systems, continued doubts about whether effective enforcement serves the countries’ national interests, and (particularly in China and some other Asian countries) cultural traditions that celebrate faithful imitation and de-emphasize the ideal of artistic genius that provides much of the [moral](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral) force of modern copyright law.\n\nLegislatures and courts in some countries have attempted to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges presented by technological advances. In most instances those adjustments have involved strengthening the [entitlements](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/entitlements) of copyright owners. In 1998, for example, the United States passed the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Digital-Millennium-Copyright-Act), which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and penalized persons who sought to evade technological shields (such as encryption) for copyrighted material. One effect of such legislation was that consumers’ opportunities to engage in activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses” were curtailed significantly. Additionally, in 2008 a U.S. federal appeals [court](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/court-law) ruled that, although they are commonly viewed as contracts, [free licenses](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/free-licence)—which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for [adherence](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adherence) to certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the [license](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/license) disappears, resulting in copyright infringement as opposed to the lesser violation of [breach](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/breach) of contract. The ruling [enhanced](https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/enhanced) the protections available to the originators of [open-source](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/open-source) software, which allows readers to view its programming or source code, improve it, then redistribute the resulting software in its modified form.\n\nThe combination of rapid technological changes and the efforts of lawmakers to adapt to them has made copyright law far more controversial than it used to be. Widely publicized political and legal battles over the appropriate shape of this system of rules continued well into the 21st century. In 2009 a Swedish court convicted the four cofounders of the file-sharing [Web site](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/website) [The Pirate Bay](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Pirate-Bay) of contributory copyright infringement for distributing more than 30 [movie](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/film) and [music](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/music) tracks copyrighted by various entertainment companies, including [Warner Brothers](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Warner-Brothers), [Sony](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Sony) Music Entertainment, [Columbia Pictures](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Columbia-Pictures-Entertainment-Inc), and EMI. The issue gained a political footing after Sweden’s Pirate Party, which campaigned heavily on a platform of copyright and patent-law reform, secured a seat in the [European Parliament](https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/European-Parliament). The party had grown by more than 50 percent in the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial.","meta_canonical":null}

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Meta Description	Berne Convention, international copyright agreement adopted by an international conference in Bern (Berne) in 1886 and subsequently modified several times (Berlin, 1908; Rome, 1928; Brussels, 1948; Stockholm, 1967; and Paris, 1971). Signatories of the Convention constitute the Berne Copyright
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Boilerpipe Text	Top Questions What is copyright? Why is copyright important? Who gets copyright protection for their work? What types of works can be protected by copyright law? How long does copyright protection last? What happens if someone uses copyrighted material without permission? copyright , the exclusive , legally secured right to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work. Now commonly subsumed under the broader category of legal regulations known as intellectual-property law , copyright is designed primarily to protect an artist, a publisher, or another owner against specific unauthorized uses of his work (e.g., reproducing the work in any material form, publishing it, performing it in public, filming it, broadcasting it, or making an adaptation of it). A copyright supplies the holder with a limited monopoly over the created material that assures him of both control over its use and a portion of the pecuniary benefits derived from it. Copyright developed out of the same system as royal patent grants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials. The purpose of such grants was not to protect authors’ or publishers’ rights but to raise government revenue and to give the government control over the contents of publication. This system was in effect in late 15th-century Venice as well as in 16th-century England, where the London Stationers’ Company achieved a monopoly on the printing of books and was regulated by the Court of Star Chamber . More From Britannica history of publishing: Development of copyright law The Statute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a milestone in the history of copyright law . It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the public domain . Similar laws were enacted in Denmark (1741), the United States (1790), and France (1793). During the 19th century most other countries established laws that protected the work of native authors. With the development of technology in communications in the industrial age, there was increasing concern over the protection of authors’ rights outside their native countries. In 1852 France extended the protection of its copyright laws to all authors, regardless of nationality, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switz., in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the Berne Convention (formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the Berne Union . The core of the convention was the principle of “national treatment”—the requirement that each signatory country provide to citizens of other signatory countries the same rights it provides to its own citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, membership in the convention gradually grew. In 1988 the United States, long a holdout, finally joined, and by the early 21st century more than 140 countries were party to the convention. In the United States, copyright law is founded on and limited by the Constitution , which authorizes Congress to create a national copyright system to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…Writings” (Article I, Section 8). In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, and it provided that such works include literary, musical, and dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound recordings. Under this legislation, copyright extends to computer programs; a separate statute (the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984) affords protection for mask works—two- or three-dimensional layout-design patterns for creating layers of integrated circuits—fixed in a semiconductor chip product. (Under certain circumstances, computer programs may receive patent protection.) The 1976 legislation accorded to the owner of a copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the work, to prepare derivative works, and to perform and display the work publicly. However, these rights were subject to numerous limitations, the most important of which was the “ fair use ” doctrine, which permitted the moderate use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, news reporting, criticism , parody , and even (in some contexts) home consumption , as long as those activities did not substantially impair the copyright owners’ abilities to exploit “potential markets.” Among the other limitations imposed on the rights of copyright owners were certain compulsory licenses, including licenses for retransmissions by cable-television systems and for the public performance of copyrighted musical works in coin-operated players. Go beyond the basics with trusted, in-depth knowledge for professionals, students, and lifelong learners. SUBSCRIBE The 1976 legislation substantially extended the duration of copyright in the United States. A 1998 statute went even farther. The general term of copyright protection was established as the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection was set at 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever was shorter. The copyright systems of most other countries are similar to that of the United States, in part because of the harmonizing effect of the Berne Convention and in part because all member countries of the World Trade Organization are now obliged to establish minimum levels of copyright protection. Nevertheless, important differences between the national regimes continue to exist. In the United States, for example, copyrights in works created by employees are commonly awarded to the employers under the “work-for-hire” doctrine, whereas in many other countries employees keep the copyrights in their creations. In most countries, government documents enjoy no copyright protection, but in Britain the opposite rule obtains. Countries vary considerably in their treatment of sound recordings . Many governments are less willing than the United States to excuse putatively infringing activities as “fair uses” and more willing than the United States to protect artists’ rights to integrity (i.e., to prevent the destruction or mutilation of their creations) and rights of attribution (i.e., to be given credit for their creations). Finally, despite the pressure exerted by the WTO agreements, countries continue to differ markedly in their willingness and ability to enforce their copyright laws. In general, enforcement is most vigorous in western Europe and North America and weakest in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The softness of copyright law in the latter regions is the result of a number of factors, including limitations in the countries’ judicial systems, continued doubts about whether effective enforcement serves the countries’ national interests, and (particularly in China and some other Asian countries) cultural traditions that celebrate faithful imitation and de-emphasize the ideal of artistic genius that provides much of the moral force of modern copyright law. Legislatures and courts in some countries have attempted to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges presented by technological advances. In most instances those adjustments have involved strengthening the entitlements of copyright owners. In 1998, for example, the United States passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and penalized persons who sought to evade technological shields (such as encryption) for copyrighted material. One effect of such legislation was that consumers’ opportunities to engage in activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses” were curtailed significantly. Additionally, in 2008 a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that, although they are commonly viewed as contracts, free licenses —which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for adherence to certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the license disappears, resulting in copyright infringement as opposed to the lesser violation of breach of contract. The ruling enhanced the protections available to the originators of open-source software, which allows readers to view its programming or source code, improve it, then redistribute the resulting software in its modified form. The combination of rapid technological changes and the efforts of lawmakers to adapt to them has made copyright law far more controversial than it used to be. Widely publicized political and legal battles over the appropriate shape of this system of rules continued well into the 21st century. In 2009 a Swedish court convicted the four cofounders of the file-sharing Web site The Pirate Bay of contributory copyright infringement for distributing more than 30 movie and music tracks copyrighted by various entertainment companies, including Warner Brothers , Sony Music Entertainment, Columbia Pictures , and EMI. The issue gained a political footing after Sweden’s Pirate Party, which campaigned heavily on a platform of copyright and patent-law reform, secured a seat in the European Parliament . The party had grown by more than 50 percent in the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial.
Markdown	[![Encyclopedia Britannica](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel/eb-logo/MendelNewThistleLogo.png)](https://www.britannica.com/) [![Encyclopedia Britannica](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel/eb-logo/MendelNewThistleLogo.png)](https://www.britannica.com/) [SUBSCRIBE](https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=global-nav&utm_campaign=blue-evergreen) [SUBSCRIBE](https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=global-nav-mobile&utm_campaign=blue-evergreen) Login https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm\_source=premium\&utm\_medium=nav-login-box\&utm\_campaign=evergreen [SUBSCRIBE](https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=hamburger-menu&utm_campaign=blue) [Ask the Chatbot](https://www.britannica.com/chatbot) [Games & Quizzes](https://www.britannica.com/quiz/browse) [History & Society](https://www.britannica.com/History-Society) [Science & Tech](https://www.britannica.com/Science-Tech) [Biographies](https://www.britannica.com/Biographies) [Animals & Nature](https://www.britannica.com/Animals-Nature) [Geography & Travel](https://www.britannica.com/Geography-Travel) [Arts & Culture](https://www.britannica.com/Arts-Culture) [ProCon](https://www.britannica.com/procon) [Money](https://www.britannica.com/money) [Videos](https://www.britannica.com/videos) [Berne Convention](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention) [Introduction](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention) [References & Edit History](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention/additional-info) [Related Topics](https://www.britannica.com/facts/Berne-Convention) ![Britannica AI Icon](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/chatbot/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5) Contents Ask Anything [Politics, Law & Government](https://www.britannica.com/browse/Politics-Law-Government) [International Relations](https://www.britannica.com/browse/International-Relations) CITE Share Feedback External Websites # Berne Convention copyright law Homework Help Also known as: Bern Convention, International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works[(Show More)](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention) Written and fact-checked by [Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....](https://www.britannica.com/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419) Britannica Editors [History](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention/additional-info#history) ![Britannica AI Icon](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/chatbot/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5) Britannica AI Ask Anything Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything Berne Convention, international [copyright](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright) agreement adopted by an international conference in Bern (Berne) in 1886 and subsequently modified several times (Berlin, 1908; Rome, 1928; Brussels, 1948; [Stockholm](https://www.britannica.com/place/Stockholm), 1967; and Paris, 1971). Signatories of the Convention [constitute](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constitute) the [Berne Copyright Union](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Union). The core of the Berne Convention is its provision that each of the contracting countries shall provide automatic protection for works first published in other countries of the Berne union and for unpublished works whose authors are citizens of or resident in such other countries. Each country of the union must guarantee to authors who are nationals of other member countries the rights that its own laws grant to its nationals. If the work has been first published in a Berne country but the author is a national of a nonunion country, the union country may restrict the protection to the extent that such protection is limited in the country of which the author is a national. The works protected by the Rome revision of 1928 include every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domain, regardless of the mode of expression, such as books, pamphlets, and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons, and other works of the same nature; dramatic or dramatico-musical works, choreographic works and entertainments in dumb show, the acting form of which is fixed in writing or otherwise; musical compositions; drawings, paintings, works of architecture, sculpture, engraving, and lithography; illustrations, geographical charts, plans, sketches, and plastic works relative to geography, [topography](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/topography), architecture, or science. It also includes translations, [adaptations](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptations), arrangements of music, and other reproductions in an altered form of a literary or artistic work, as well as collections of different works. The Brussels revision of 1948 added cinematographic works and photographic works. In addition, both the Rome and Brussels revisions protect works of art applied to industrial purposes so far as the domestic legislation of each country allows such protection. Berne also spelled: Bern (Show more) Formally: International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Show more) [See all related content](https://www.britannica.com/facts/Berne-Convention) In the Rome revision the term of copyright for most types of works became the life of the author plus 50 years, but it was recognized that some countries might have a shorter term. Both the Rome and the Brussels revisions protected the right of making translations; but the Stockholm [Protocol](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Protocol) and the Paris revision somewhat liberalized the rights of translation, in a compromise between developing and developed countries. ![Britannica AI Icon](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/chatbot/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5)Britannica AI chevron\_right Berne Convention close [AI-generated answers](https://www.britannica.com/about-britannica-ai) from Britannica articles. AI makes mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. [copyright](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright) [Introduction](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright) [References & Edit History](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright/additional-info) [Related Topics](https://www.britannica.com/facts/copyright) At a Glance [![default image](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/shared/new-thistle.svg?v=3.178.5)](https://www.britannica.com/summary/copyright) [copyright summary](https://www.britannica.com/summary/copyright) ![Britannica AI Icon](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/chatbot/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5) Ask Anything Quick Summary [Politics, Law & Government](https://www.britannica.com/browse/Politics-Law-Government) [Law, Crime & Punishment](https://www.britannica.com/browse/Law-Crime-Punishment) CITE Share Feedback External Websites # copyright law Homework Help Written by [William Weston Fisher Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Author of The Law of the Land: An Intellectual History of American Property Doctrine, 1776–1840 and others.](https://www.britannica.com/contributor/William-Weston-Fisher/5509) William Weston Fisher Fact-checked by [Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....](https://www.britannica.com/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419) Britannica Editors Last updated Mar. 21, 2026 •[History](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright/additional-info#history) ![Britannica AI Icon](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/chatbot/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5) Britannica AI Ask Anything Quick Summary Table of Contents Table of Contents Quick Summary Ask Anything Top Questions - What is copyright? - Why is copyright important? - Who gets copyright protection for their work? - What types of works can be protected by copyright law? - How long does copyright protection last? - What happens if someone uses copyrighted material without permission? Show more Show less copyright, the [exclusive](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exclusive), legally secured right to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work. Now commonly subsumed under the broader category of legal regulations known as [intellectual-property law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/intellectual-property-law), copyright is designed primarily to protect an artist, a publisher, or another owner against specific unauthorized uses of his work (e.g., reproducing the work in any material form, publishing it, performing it in public, filming it, [broadcasting](https://www.britannica.com/technology/broadcasting) it, or making an [adaptation](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptation) of it). A copyright supplies the holder with a limited monopoly over the created material that assures him of both control over its use and a portion of the [pecuniary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pecuniary) benefits derived from it. Copyright developed out of the same system as [royal](https://www.britannica.com/topic/letters-patent) [patent](https://www.britannica.com/topic/patent) grants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials. The purpose of such grants was not to protect authors’ or publishers’ rights but to raise government revenue and to give the government control over the contents of publication. This system was in effect in late 15th-century Venice as well as in 16th-century England, where the London Stationers’ Company achieved a monopoly on the printing of books and was regulated by the [Court of Star Chamber](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Star-Chamber). [![Gutenberg Bible](https://cdn.britannica.com/42/3642-050-C8589FEB/Gutenberg-Bible-Mainz-Ger.jpg) More From Britannica history of publishing: Development of copyright law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/Development-of-copyright-law#ref398105) The Statute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a [milestone](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/milestone) in the history of copyright [law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/law). It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the [public domain](https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-domain). Similar laws were enacted in Denmark (1741), the [United States](https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States) (1790), and France (1793). During the 19th century most other countries established laws that protected the work of native authors. With the development of technology in communications in the industrial age, there was increasing concern over the protection of authors’ rights outside their native countries. In 1852 France extended the protection of its [copyright](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/copyright) laws to all authors, regardless of nationality, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switz., in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the [Berne Convention](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention) (formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the [Berne Union](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Union). The core of the convention was the principle of “national treatment”—the requirement that each signatory country provide to citizens of other signatory countries the same rights it provides to its own citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, membership in the convention gradually grew. In 1988 the United States, long a holdout, finally joined, and by the early 21st century more than 140 countries were party to the convention. In the United States, copyright law is founded on and limited by the [Constitution](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America), which authorizes Congress to create a national copyright system to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…Writings” (Article I, Section 8). In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any [tangible](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangible) medium of expression, and it provided that such works include literary, musical, and dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound recordings. Under this legislation, copyright extends to computer programs; a separate statute (the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984) affords protection for mask works—two- or three-dimensional layout-design patterns for creating layers of [integrated](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrated) circuits—fixed in a semiconductor chip product. (Under certain circumstances, computer programs may receive patent protection.) The 1976 legislation accorded to the owner of a copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the work, to prepare derivative works, and to perform and display the work publicly. However, these rights were subject to numerous limitations, the most important of which was the “[fair use](https://www.britannica.com/topic/fair-use)” doctrine, which permitted the moderate use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, news reporting, [criticism](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criticism), [parody](https://www.britannica.com/art/parody-literature), and even (in some contexts) home [consumption](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consumption), as long as those activities did not substantially impair the copyright owners’ abilities to exploit “potential markets.” Among the other limitations imposed on the rights of copyright owners were certain compulsory licenses, including licenses for retransmissions by cable-television systems and for the public performance of copyrighted musical works in coin-operated players. Explore Britannica Premium\! Go beyond the basics with trusted, in-depth knowledge for professionals, students, and lifelong learners. [SUBSCRIBE](https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=basics-2026) ![Penguin, ship, mountain, atlas](https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/inline-left.webp) ![shohei ohtani, plants, andy wharhol art](https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/inline-right.webp) ![Mobile](https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/inline-mobile.webp?w=400) The 1976 legislation substantially extended the duration of copyright in the United States. A 1998 statute went even farther. The general term of copyright protection was established as the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection was set at 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever was shorter. The copyright systems of most other countries are similar to that of the United States, in part because of the harmonizing effect of the Berne Convention and in part because all member countries of the [World Trade Organization](https://www.britannica.com/topic/World-Trade-Organization) are now obliged to establish minimum levels of copyright protection. Nevertheless, important differences between the national regimes continue to exist. In the United States, for example, copyrights in works created by employees are commonly awarded to the employers under the “work-for-hire” doctrine, whereas in many other countries employees keep the copyrights in their creations. In most countries, government documents enjoy no copyright protection, but in [Britain](https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom) the opposite rule obtains. Countries vary considerably in their treatment of [sound recordings](https://www.britannica.com/technology/sound-recording). Many governments are less willing than the United States to excuse putatively infringing activities as “fair uses” and more willing than the United States to protect artists’ rights to [integrity](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity) (i.e., to prevent the destruction or mutilation of their creations) and rights of [attribution](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/attribution) (i.e., to be given credit for their creations). Finally, despite the pressure exerted by the WTO agreements, countries continue to differ markedly in their willingness and ability to enforce their copyright laws. In general, enforcement is most vigorous in western [Europe](https://www.britannica.com/place/Europe) and [North America](https://www.britannica.com/place/North-America) and weakest in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The softness of copyright law in the latter regions is the result of a number of factors, including limitations in the countries’ judicial systems, continued doubts about whether effective enforcement serves the countries’ national interests, and (particularly in China and some other Asian countries) cultural traditions that celebrate faithful imitation and de-emphasize the ideal of artistic genius that provides much of the [moral](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral) force of modern copyright law. Legislatures and courts in some countries have attempted to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges presented by technological advances. In most instances those adjustments have involved strengthening the [entitlements](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entitlements) of copyright owners. In 1998, for example, the United States passed the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Digital-Millennium-Copyright-Act), which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and penalized persons who sought to evade technological shields (such as encryption) for copyrighted material. One effect of such legislation was that consumers’ opportunities to engage in activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses” were curtailed significantly. Additionally, in 2008 a U.S. federal appeals [court](https://www.britannica.com/topic/court-law) ruled that, although they are commonly viewed as contracts, [free licenses](https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-licence)—which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for [adherence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adherence) to certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the [license](https://www.britannica.com/money/license) disappears, resulting in copyright infringement as opposed to the lesser violation of [breach](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breach) of contract. The ruling [enhanced](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enhanced) the protections available to the originators of [open-source](https://www.britannica.com/topic/open-source) software, which allows readers to view its programming or source code, improve it, then redistribute the resulting software in its modified form. Key People: [Dion Boucicault](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dion-Boucicault) [Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Philip-Henry-Stanhope-5th-Earl-Stanhope) [Richard Rogers Bowker](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Rogers-Bowker) (Show more) Related Topics: [intellectual-property law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/intellectual-property-law) [copyright symbol](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright-symbol) [fair use](https://www.britannica.com/topic/fair-use) [digital rights management](https://www.britannica.com/topic/digital-rights-management) [copyleft](https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyleft) (Show more) On the Web: [Social Sci LibreTexts - Copyright](https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Library_and_Information_Science/Library_1600%3A_Introduction_to_College-Level_Research/05%3A_Using_Information_Ethically/5.05%3A_Copyright) (Mar. 21, 2026) (Show more) [See all related content](https://www.britannica.com/facts/copyright) The combination of rapid technological changes and the efforts of lawmakers to adapt to them has made copyright law far more controversial than it used to be. Widely publicized political and legal battles over the appropriate shape of this system of rules continued well into the 21st century. In 2009 a Swedish court convicted the four cofounders of the file-sharing [Web site](https://www.britannica.com/technology/website) [The Pirate Bay](https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Pirate-Bay) of contributory copyright infringement for distributing more than 30 [movie](https://www.britannica.com/art/film) and [music](https://www.britannica.com/art/music) tracks copyrighted by various entertainment companies, including [Warner Brothers](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Warner-Brothers), [Sony](https://www.britannica.com/money/Sony) Music Entertainment, [Columbia Pictures](https://www.britannica.com/money/Columbia-Pictures-Entertainment-Inc), and EMI. The issue gained a political footing after Sweden’s Pirate Party, which campaigned heavily on a platform of copyright and patent-law reform, secured a seat in the [European Parliament](https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-Parliament). The party had grown by more than 50 percent in the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial. [William Weston Fisher](https://www.britannica.com/contributor/William-Weston-Fisher/5509) [The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419) ![Britannica AI Icon](https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-178/images/chatbot/star-ai.svg?v=3.178.5)Britannica AI chevron\_right Copyright close [AI-generated answers](https://www.britannica.com/about-britannica-ai) from Britannica articles. AI makes mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. Load Next Page Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style Britannica Editors. "Berne Convention". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Apr. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention. Accessed 9 April 2026. Copy Citation Share Share to social media [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/BRITANNICA/) [X](https://x.com/britannica) URL <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention> External Websites - [Cornell University Law School - Berne Convention](http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/1.html) Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style Fisher, William Weston. "copyright". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Mar. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright. Accessed 9 April 2026. Copy Citation Share Share to social media [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/BRITANNICA/) [X](https://x.com/britannica) URL <https://www.britannica.com/topic/copyright> External Websites - [National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Copyright](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5226179/) - [CORE - The economics of copyright law : A stocktake of the literature (PDF)](https://files.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4897291.pdf) - [United States Copyright Office - Copyright Basics (PDF)](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf) - [Guides at University of North Texas - What is Copyright?](https://guides.library.unt.edu/SCCopyright/basics) - [UC Irvine School of Social Sciences - Copyright vs. Napster: The File Sharing Revolution (PDF)](https://www.socsci.uci.edu/lawforum/content/journal/LFJ_2004_compilation.pdf) - [OpenStax - Introduction to Intellectual Property - The Basics of Copyright](https://openstax.org/books/introduction-intellectual-property/pages/3-1-the-basics-of-copyright) - [Cornell Law School - Legal Information Institute - Copyright](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/copyright) - [Open Textbooks at UQ - UQ Open Textbooks Author Guide - Overview of Copyright](https://uq.pressbooks.pub/open-textbooks-author-guide/chapter/overview-of-copyright/) - [Association of Research Libraries - Copyright Timeline: A History of Copyright in the United States](https://www.arl.org/copyright-timeline/) - [the University of Chicago Press Journals - File Sharing and Copyright](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/605852) - [The Canadian Encyclopedia - Copyright Law](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/copyright-law) - [Social Sci LibreTexts - Copyright](https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Library_and_Information_Science/Library_1600%3A_Introduction_to_College-Level_Research/05%3A_Using_Information_Ethically/5.05%3A_Copyright) Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. - [copyright - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)](https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/copyright/273805)
Readable Markdown	Top Questions - What is copyright? - Why is copyright important? - Who gets copyright protection for their work? - What types of works can be protected by copyright law? - How long does copyright protection last? - What happens if someone uses copyrighted material without permission? copyright, the [exclusive](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exclusive), legally secured right to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work. Now commonly subsumed under the broader category of legal regulations known as [intellectual-property law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/intellectual-property-law), copyright is designed primarily to protect an artist, a publisher, or another owner against specific unauthorized uses of his work (e.g., reproducing the work in any material form, publishing it, performing it in public, filming it, [broadcasting](https://www.britannica.com/technology/broadcasting) it, or making an [adaptation](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptation) of it). A copyright supplies the holder with a limited monopoly over the created material that assures him of both control over its use and a portion of the [pecuniary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pecuniary) benefits derived from it. Copyright developed out of the same system as [royal](https://www.britannica.com/topic/letters-patent) [patent](https://www.britannica.com/topic/patent) grants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials. The purpose of such grants was not to protect authors’ or publishers’ rights but to raise government revenue and to give the government control over the contents of publication. This system was in effect in late 15th-century Venice as well as in 16th-century England, where the London Stationers’ Company achieved a monopoly on the printing of books and was regulated by the [Court of Star Chamber](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Star-Chamber). [![Gutenberg Bible](https://cdn.britannica.com/42/3642-050-C8589FEB/Gutenberg-Bible-Mainz-Ger.jpg) More From Britannica history of publishing: Development of copyright law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/Development-of-copyright-law#ref398105) The Statute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a [milestone](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/milestone) in the history of copyright [law](https://www.britannica.com/topic/law). It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the [public domain](https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-domain). Similar laws were enacted in Denmark (1741), the [United States](https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States) (1790), and France (1793). During the 19th century most other countries established laws that protected the work of native authors. With the development of technology in communications in the industrial age, there was increasing concern over the protection of authors’ rights outside their native countries. In 1852 France extended the protection of its [copyright](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/copyright) laws to all authors, regardless of nationality, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switz., in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the [Berne Convention](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention) (formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the [Berne Union](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Union). The core of the convention was the principle of “national treatment”—the requirement that each signatory country provide to citizens of other signatory countries the same rights it provides to its own citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, membership in the convention gradually grew. In 1988 the United States, long a holdout, finally joined, and by the early 21st century more than 140 countries were party to the convention. In the United States, copyright law is founded on and limited by the [Constitution](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America), which authorizes Congress to create a national copyright system to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…Writings” (Article I, Section 8). In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any [tangible](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangible) medium of expression, and it provided that such works include literary, musical, and dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound recordings. Under this legislation, copyright extends to computer programs; a separate statute (the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984) affords protection for mask works—two- or three-dimensional layout-design patterns for creating layers of [integrated](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrated) circuits—fixed in a semiconductor chip product. (Under certain circumstances, computer programs may receive patent protection.) The 1976 legislation accorded to the owner of a copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the work, to prepare derivative works, and to perform and display the work publicly. However, these rights were subject to numerous limitations, the most important of which was the “[fair use](https://www.britannica.com/topic/fair-use)” doctrine, which permitted the moderate use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, news reporting, [criticism](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criticism), [parody](https://www.britannica.com/art/parody-literature), and even (in some contexts) home [consumption](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consumption), as long as those activities did not substantially impair the copyright owners’ abilities to exploit “potential markets.” Among the other limitations imposed on the rights of copyright owners were certain compulsory licenses, including licenses for retransmissions by cable-television systems and for the public performance of copyrighted musical works in coin-operated players. Go beyond the basics with trusted, in-depth knowledge for professionals, students, and lifelong learners. [SUBSCRIBE](https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=basics-2026) ![Penguin, ship, mountain, atlas](https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/inline-left.webp) ![shohei ohtani, plants, andy wharhol art](https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/inline-right.webp) ![Mobile](https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/inline-mobile.webp?w=400) The 1976 legislation substantially extended the duration of copyright in the United States. A 1998 statute went even farther. The general term of copyright protection was established as the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection was set at 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever was shorter. The copyright systems of most other countries are similar to that of the United States, in part because of the harmonizing effect of the Berne Convention and in part because all member countries of the [World Trade Organization](https://www.britannica.com/topic/World-Trade-Organization) are now obliged to establish minimum levels of copyright protection. Nevertheless, important differences between the national regimes continue to exist. In the United States, for example, copyrights in works created by employees are commonly awarded to the employers under the “work-for-hire” doctrine, whereas in many other countries employees keep the copyrights in their creations. In most countries, government documents enjoy no copyright protection, but in [Britain](https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom) the opposite rule obtains. Countries vary considerably in their treatment of [sound recordings](https://www.britannica.com/technology/sound-recording). Many governments are less willing than the United States to excuse putatively infringing activities as “fair uses” and more willing than the United States to protect artists’ rights to [integrity](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity) (i.e., to prevent the destruction or mutilation of their creations) and rights of [attribution](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/attribution) (i.e., to be given credit for their creations). Finally, despite the pressure exerted by the WTO agreements, countries continue to differ markedly in their willingness and ability to enforce their copyright laws. In general, enforcement is most vigorous in western [Europe](https://www.britannica.com/place/Europe) and [North America](https://www.britannica.com/place/North-America) and weakest in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The softness of copyright law in the latter regions is the result of a number of factors, including limitations in the countries’ judicial systems, continued doubts about whether effective enforcement serves the countries’ national interests, and (particularly in China and some other Asian countries) cultural traditions that celebrate faithful imitation and de-emphasize the ideal of artistic genius that provides much of the [moral](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral) force of modern copyright law. Legislatures and courts in some countries have attempted to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges presented by technological advances. In most instances those adjustments have involved strengthening the [entitlements](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entitlements) of copyright owners. In 1998, for example, the United States passed the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Digital-Millennium-Copyright-Act), which expanded owners’ control over digital forms of their creations and penalized persons who sought to evade technological shields (such as encryption) for copyrighted material. One effect of such legislation was that consumers’ opportunities to engage in activities that previously would have been considered “fair uses” were curtailed significantly. Additionally, in 2008 a U.S. federal appeals [court](https://www.britannica.com/topic/court-law) ruled that, although they are commonly viewed as contracts, [free licenses](https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-licence)—which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for [adherence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adherence) to certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the [license](https://www.britannica.com/money/license) disappears, resulting in copyright infringement as opposed to the lesser violation of [breach](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breach) of contract. The ruling [enhanced](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enhanced) the protections available to the originators of [open-source](https://www.britannica.com/topic/open-source) software, which allows readers to view its programming or source code, improve it, then redistribute the resulting software in its modified form. The combination of rapid technological changes and the efforts of lawmakers to adapt to them has made copyright law far more controversial than it used to be. Widely publicized political and legal battles over the appropriate shape of this system of rules continued well into the 21st century. In 2009 a Swedish court convicted the four cofounders of the file-sharing [Web site](https://www.britannica.com/technology/website) [The Pirate Bay](https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Pirate-Bay) of contributory copyright infringement for distributing more than 30 [movie](https://www.britannica.com/art/film) and [music](https://www.britannica.com/art/music) tracks copyrighted by various entertainment companies, including [Warner Brothers](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Warner-Brothers), [Sony](https://www.britannica.com/money/Sony) Music Entertainment, [Columbia Pictures](https://www.britannica.com/money/Columbia-Pictures-Entertainment-Inc), and EMI. The issue gained a political footing after Sweden’s Pirate Party, which campaigned heavily on a platform of copyright and patent-law reform, secured a seat in the [European Parliament](https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-Parliament). The party had grown by more than 50 percent in the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial.
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