The Berne Convention and Other Related International Conventions On Copyright

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationship between the Berne Convention and other related international conventions on copyright. Following World War II, seven major conventions on copyright and neighbouring rights have sprung from the side of, or alongside, the Berne Convention. These are the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC); the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations 1961 (Rome Convention); the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorized Duplication of their Phonograms 1971 (Phonograms Convention); the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty (WCT); the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT); the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances 2012 (BTAP); and the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled 2013 (Marrakesh VIP Treaty). None of these later conventions stands in contradiction to the Berne Convention: on the contrary, each can be seen as an important supplement to the international system of protection established by that Convention. The chapter focuses on the UCC and its Pan-American predecessors. This is now a topic that is chiefly of historical interest, but the role that the UCC has played as a ‘stepping stone’ or bridge to Berne has been of considerable importance.