Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/11pdf/10-545.pdf
Page Number: 7

Cite as:  565 U. S. ____ (2012) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

Berne Convention, Sept. 9, 1886, as revised at Stockholm
on  July  14,  1967,  Art.  1,  5(1),  828  U.  N.  T.  S.  221,  225,
231–233.  Nationals  of  a  member  country,  as  well  as  any 
author who publishes in one of Berne’s 164 member states,
thus enjoy copyright protection in nations across the globe.
Art. 2(6), 3.  Each country, moreover, must afford at least
the  minimum  level  of  protection  specified  by  Berne.    The 
copyright  term  must  span  the  author’s  lifetime,  plus  at
least  50  additional  years,  whether  or  not  the  author  has 
complied  with  a  member  state’s  legal  formalities.    Art. 
5(2), 7(1).  And, as relevant here, a work must be protected 
abroad unless its copyright term has expired in either the 
country  where  protection  is  claimed  or  the  country  of 
origin.  Art. 18(1)–(2).1 

A different system of transnational copyright protection
long  prevailed  in  this  country.    Until  1891,  foreign  works
were categorically excluded from Copyright Act protection. 
Throughout  most  of  the  20th  century,  the  only  eligible 
foreign authors were those whose countries granted recip-
rocal  rights  to  U. S.  authors  and  whose  works  were  print 

—————— 

1 Article 18 of the Berne Convention provides: 
“(1) This Convention shall apply to all works which, at the moment of 
its coming into force, have not yet fallen into the public domain in the
country of origin through the expiry of the term of protection. 

“(2)  If,  however,  through  the  expiry  of  the  term  of  protection  which 
was previously granted, a work has fallen into the public domain of the
country  where  protection  is  claimed,  that  work  shall  not  be  protected 
anew. 

“(3) The application of this principle shall be subject to any provisions
contained in special conventions to that effect existing or to be conclud-
ed  between  countries  of  the  Union.  In  the  absence  of  such  provisions, 
the  respective  countries  shall  determine,  each  in  so  far  as  it  is  con-
cerned, the conditions of application of this principle. 

“(4)  The  preceding  provisions  shall  also  apply  in  the  case  of  new 
accessions to the Union and to cases in which protection is extended by 
the  application  of  Article  7  or  by  the  abandonment  of  reservations.”
828 U. N. T. S. 251.