Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/11pdf/10-545.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

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

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 10–545 
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LAWRENCE GOLAN, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. ERIC H. 
HOLDER, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT 

[January 18, 2012]

 JUSTICE GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. 
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic  Works  (Berne  Convention  or  Berne),  which  took
effect  in  1886,  is  the  principal  accord  governing  interna-
tional copyright relations.  Latecomer to the international 
copyright  regime  launched  by  Berne,  the  United  States 
joined the Convention in 1989.  To perfect U. S. implemen-
tation  of  Berne,  and  as  part  of  our  response  to  the  Uru-
guay  Round  of  multilateral  trade  negotiations,  Congress,
in  1994,  gave  works  enjoying  copyright  protection  abroad
the  same  full  term  of  protection  available  to  U. S.  works.
Congress  did  so  in  §514  of  the  Uruguay  Round  Agree-
ments  Act  (URAA),  which  grants  copyright  protection  to 
preexisting works of Berne member countries, protected in
their country of origin, but lacking protection in the United
States  for  any  of  three  reasons:  The  United  States  did
not protect works from the country of origin at the time of
publication; the United States did not protect sound record-
ings  fixed  before  1972;  or  the  author  had  failed  to  comply
with  U. S.  statutory  formalities  (formalities  Congress  no
longer requires as prerequisites to copyright protection).

The URAA accords no protection to a foreign work after