Copyright: Its History and Its Law

In testimony whereof the Plenipotentiaries and Delegates have signed the present Convention and affixed the seal of the Third International American Conference.

Signed at Rio de Janeiro, Aug. 23, 1906

Made in the City of Rio de Janeiro the twenty-third day of August, nineteen hundred and six, in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, and deposited with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the United States of Brazil, in order that certified copies thereof be made and sent through diplomatic channels to the signatory States.

14. BUENOS AIRES CONVENTION, 1910

Convention on Literary and Artistic Copyright Signed at Buenos Aires, August 11, 1910

Article 1

Union to protect literary and artistic property

The signatory States acknowledge and protect the rights of literary and artistic property in conformity with the stipulations of the present convention.

Article 2

Definition of "literary and artistic works"

In the expression "Literary and artistic works" are included books, writings, pamphlets of all kinds, whatever may be the subject of which they treat and whatever the number of their pages; dramatic or dramatico-musical works; choreographic and musical compositions, with or without words; drawings, paintings, sculpture, engravings; photographic works; astronomical or geographical globes; plans, sketches or plastic works relating to geography, geology or topography, architecture or any other science; and, finally, all productions that can be published by any means of impression or reproduction.

Article 3

Formalities

The acknowledgment of a copyright obtained in one State, in conformity with its laws, shall produce its effects of full right in all the other States without the necessity of complying with any other formality, provided always there shall appear in the work a statement that indicates the reservation of the property right.

Article 4

Definition of copyright

The copyright of a literary or artistic work includes for its author or assigns the exclusive power of disposing of the same, of publishing, assigning, translating, or authorizing its translation and reproducing it in any form whether wholly or in part.

Article 5

Authorship recognized

The author of a protected work, except in case of proof to the contrary, shall be considered the person whose name or well-known nom de plume is indicated therein; consequently suit brought by such author or his representative against counterfeiters or violators shall be admitted by the courts of the signatory States.

Article 6

Authors to enjoy rights secured in country of origin for like term

The authors or their assigns, citizens or domiciled foreigners, shall enjoy in the signatory countries the rights that the respective laws accord, without those rights being allowed to exceed the term of protection granted in the country of origin.

Works in parts or in several volumes

For works comprising several volumes that are not published simultaneously, as well as for bulletins, or parts, or periodical publications, the term of the copyright will commence to run, with respect to each volume, bulletin, part, or periodical publication, from the respective date of its publication.

Article 7

Country of first publication country of origin

The country of origin of a work will be deemed that of its first publication in America, and if it shall have appeared simultaneously in several of the signatory countries, that which fixes the shortest period of protection.

Article 8

Subsequent editions non-copyright

A work which was not originally copyrighted shall not be entitled to copyright in subsequent editions.

Article 9

Translation protected

Authorized translations shall be protected in the same manner as original works.

Translators of works concerning which no right of guaranteed property exists, or the guaranteed copyright of which may have been extinguished, may obtain for their translations the rights of property set forth in Article 3d but they shall not prevent the publication of other translations of the same work.

Article 10

Addresses

Addresses or discourses delivered or read before deliberative assemblies, courts of justice, or at public meetings may be printed in the daily press without the necessity of any authorization, with due regard, however, to the provisions of the domestic legislation of each nation.

Article 11

Newspaper articles

Literary, scientific, or artistic writings, whatever may be their subjects, published in newspapers or magazines in any one of the countries of the Union, shall not be reproduced in the other countries without the consent of the authors. With the exception of the works mentioned, any article in a newspaper may be reprinted by others if it has not been expressly prohibited, but in every case the source from which it is taken must be cited.

Newspaper news

News and miscellaneous items published merely for general information do not enjoy protection under this convention.

Article 12

Fragments of literary or artistic works

The reproduction of extracts from literary or artistic publications for the purpose of instruction or chrestomathy does not confer any right of property, and may, therefore, be freely made in all the signatory countries.

Article 13

Infringements defined

The indirect appropriation of unauthorized parts of a literary or artistic work having no original character shall be deemed an illicit reproduction, in so far as affects civil liability.

The reproduction in any form of an entire work, or of the greater part thereof, accompanied by notes or commentaries under the pretext of literary criticism or amplification, or supplement to the original work, shall also be considered illicit.