page_title: Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988
section_title: Context
hierarchical_section_title: Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 / Context
caption_attribution_description: English: The Pirate Publisher—An International Burlesque that has the Longest Run on Record by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler, published as a centrefold in Puck, v. 18, no. 468 (1886 February 24). A commentary on the state of copyright laws that, prior to a 1911 treaty, generally offered no protection to foreign authors and works. In the cartoon, hordes of German, Norwegian, French, English, and American authors surround a publisher who republishes their newly-created works without attribution or royalties in a foreign country, as international law then allowed. Of note is W. S. Gilbert, fifth from the right in the front row, as the many unauthorised or "pirate" productions of H.M.S. Pinafore caused him and Arthur Sullivan to première The Pirates of Penzance in America, to at least gain the initial profits there before anyone else could exploit it, and the title and subject of The Pirates of Penzance is sometimes - although somewhat dubiously in my opinion - considered to partially be a reference to the issue of pirate productions of their works. Other authors shown include Mark Twain, Tennyson, Robert Browning, F. C. Burnand, Émile Zola, Jules Verne, Victorien Sardou, Wilkie Collins, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., as well as many others. This has been a very difficult restoration - there were actually 3 or 4 false starts as I tried to get around a very nasty crease in the original. I think it came out pretty well in the end, though. Français&#160;: Cette illustration de Joseph Ferdinand Keppler a été publiée en février 1886 dans le magazine satirique Puck. Il s'agit d'un commentaire sur l'état juridique du copyright qui, avant un traité signé en 1911, n'offre habituellement aucune protection aux auteurs étrangers et à leurs oeuvres. Dans l'illustration, des auteurs allemands, norvégiens, français, anglais et américains entourent un éditeur qui republie leurs dernières oeuvres sans paternité ou redevances dans un pays étranger, ce qu'autorisent les lois internationales de cette époque. Les noms des auteurs caricaturés apparaissent sur leur chapeau ou une affiche à proximité&#160;: William S. Gilbert, Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Émile Zola, Jules Verne, Victorien Sardou, Wilkie Collins, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, Charles Dickens, Bret Harte, Georg Moritz Ebers, James Russell Lowell...
context_page_description: The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 is a copyright act that came into force in the United States on March 1, 1989, making it a party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
context_section_description: The United States initially refused—for 102 years, from 1886 to 1988—to join the Berne Convention, as it would have required major changes in its copyright law, particularly:
  (A) Moral rights,
  (B) Copyright formalities, including registration, deposit, and mandatory copyright notice
  At the same time, U.S. copyright experts seemed to acknowledge that the United States' approach to international copyright relations was flawed. For example, Barbara Ringer, a leading U.S. copyright official, remarked that until around 1955, the United States' "role in international copyright was marked by short-sightedness, political isolationism, and narrow economic self-interest".
  H. Sandison writes: "The roots of American isolationism [are from the 1790 Copyright Act which protected books] only if their authors were citizens or residents of the United States".  Ringer observed that this meant U.S. publishers could pirate the works of English authors like Charles Dickens and publish them cheaper in the new nation than U.S. authors could be published.  This hurt the market for American books for 100 years and was only partly remedied in 1891, when the United States passed a limited international copyright law. Although the United States was not alone in denying copyright protection to nonresident foreigners, by waiting until 1988 to join the Berne Convention, the United States was one of the last industrial countries to join.
  By ratifying the Berne Convention, the United States Congress signaled that it was taking a "minimalist approach to compliance" (emphasis original). Indeed, regarding both moral rights and formalities, the Implementation Act was limited; in short, the "major concession was that the United States finally, reluctantly, did away with copyright formalities". Furthermore, some copyright formalities, like requiring that a copy of the work be "deposited" at the Library of Congress, were preserved.
caption: The Pirate Publisher—An International Burlesque that has the Longest Run on Record, from Puck, 1886, satirizes the ability of publishers to take works from one country and publish them in another without paying the original authors.
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