Copyright: Its History and Its Law

The present Convention shall be put in force three months after the exchange of the ratifications, and shall remain in effect for an indefinite period until the termination of a year from the day on which it may have been denounced.

Denunciation of Convention

This denunciation shall be addressed to the Government of the Swiss Confederation. It shall only take effect in respect of the country which shall have made it, the Convention remaining operative for the other countries of the Union.

Article 30

Adoption of term of life and 50 years to be notified

The States which introduce into their legislation the term of protection of fifty years,[3 - Article 7 provides for a general term of protection for life and fifty years.] provided for by Article 7, paragraph 1, of the present Convention, shall make it known to the Government of the Swiss Confederation by a written notification which shall be communicated at once by that Government to all the other countries of the Union.

Notice shall be given of renouncement of any reservations

It shall be the same for such States as shall renounce any reservations made by them in virtue of Articles 25, 26, and 27.

Signature

In testimony of which, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention and have attached thereto their seals.

Date of signing, November 13, 1908

Done at Berlin, the thirteenth of November, one thousand nine hundred eight, in a single copy, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of the Swiss Confederation, and of which copies, properly certified, shall be sent through diplomatic channels to the contracting countries.

IV

PAN AMERICAN UNION: CONVENTIONS

11. MONTEVIDEO CONVENTION, 1889

Treaty on Literary and Artistic Copyright Adopted January 11, 1889

Article 1

Union to protect literary and artistic property

The contracting States promise to recognize and protect the rights of literary and artistic property, according to the provisions of the present treaty.

Article 2

Authors shall enjoy rights secured in country of origin

The author of any literary or artistic work, and his successors, shall enjoy in the contracting States the rights accorded him by the law of the State in which its original publication or production took place.

Article 3

Definition of copyright

The author's right of ownership in a literary or artistic work shall comprise the right to dispose of it, to publish it, to convey it to another, to translate it or to authorize its translation, and to reproduce it in any form whatsoever.

Article 4

Term not to exceed that of country of origin

No State shall be obliged to recognize the right to literary or artistic property for a longer period than that allowed to authors who obtain the same right in that State. This period may be limited to that prescribed in the country where it originates, if such period be the shorter.

Article 5

Definition of "literary and artistic work"

By the expression literary or artistic works is understood all books, pamphlets, or other writings, dramatic or dramatico-musical works, chorographies, musical compositions with or without words, drawings, paintings, sculptures, engravings, photographs, lithographs, geographical maps, plans, sketches, and plastic works relating to geography, topography, architecture, or to the sciences in general; and finally every production in the field of literature or art which may be published in any way by printing or reproduction.

Article 6

Translation rights

The translators of works of which a copyright either does not exist or has expired, shall enjoy with respect to their translations the rights declared in Article 3, but they shall not prevent the publication of other translations of the same work.

Article 7

Newspaper articles

Newspaper articles may be reproduced upon quoting the publication from which they are taken. From this provision articles relating to the sciences or arts, and the reproduction of which shall have been prohibited by the authors are excepted.

Article 8

Addresses

Speeches pronounced or read in deliberative assemblies, before tribunals of justice, or in public meetings, may be published in the public press without any authorization whatsoever.

Article 9

Infringements defined

Under the head of illicit reproductions shall be classed all indirect, unauthorized appropriations of a literary or artistic work, which may be designated by different names as adaptations, arrangements, etc., etc., and which are no more than a reproduction without presenting the character of an original work.

Article 10

Authority recognized

The rights of authorship shall be allowed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, in favor of the persons whose names or pseudonyms shall be borne upon the literary or artistic works in question.

If the authors wish to withhold their names, they should inform the editors that the rights of authorship belong to them.

Article 11

Each government to exercise supervision

Those who usurp the right of literary or artistic property shall be brought before the courts and tried according to the laws of the country in which the fraud may have been committed.