Berne Convention

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is an international agreement that provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms. The treaty has been ratified by 181 states out of 195 countries in the world, and its rules have been updated many times since its adoption in 1886. The Berne Convention introduces the concept that protection exists the moment a work is "fixed", and its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works. It also enforces a requirement that countries recognize rights held by the citizens of all other parties to the convention, providing foreign authors with the same rights and privileges to copyrighted material as domestic authors. The treaty requires its parties to recognize the protection of works of authors from other parties to the convention at least as well as those of its own nationals.learn more on wikipedia