Berne, Baby, Berne

Review of The Copyright Wars: Three Centuries of Trans-Atlantic Battle. By Peter Baldwin. Princeton University Press. 535 pp. $35. In 1989, the United States joined the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Established in 1886, the Berne Convention assumed that such works were a form of property and that their creators and owners had a right to protection. Berne required signatories to provide strong standards for copyright and treat authors from all member nations ...