The Berne Convention is the legal framework protecting both literary and artistic works through copyright intellectual property laws in all signatory countries. This means that you can get a rough impression of how things will be regulated on an international level by reading the text. You cannot determine the exact laws, however.

Example for the kinds of details left to the signatory countries:

Article 2, Paragraph 1 defines the term "literary and artistic works" as "every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as ..."

Article 2, Paragraph 2 then says, "It shall, however, be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to prescribe that works in general or any specified categories of works shall not be protected unless they have been fixed in some material form."

See WikiPedia:Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works

CategoryCopyright

BerneConvention

Discussion