[1][2] The treaty provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms.

As of November 2022, the Berne Convention has been ratified by 181 states out of 195 countries in the world, most of which are also parties to the Paris Act of 1971.

[citation needed] Author's rights under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is prohibited to require formal registration.

However, when the United States joined the convention on 1 March 1989,[6] it continued to make statutory damages and attorney's fees only available for registered works.

[11] The matter of determining the country of origin for digital publication remains a topic of controversy among law academics as well.

As to works, protection must include "every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever the mode or form of its expression" (Article 2(1) of the convention).

[citation needed] For example, Article 10(2) permits Berne members to provide for a "teaching exception" within their copyright statutes.

[citation needed] The Berne Convention was developed at the instigation of Victor Hugo[20] of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale.

[21] Thus it was influenced by the French "rights of the author" (droits d'auteur), which contrasts with the Anglo-Saxon concept of "copyright" which only dealt with economic concerns.

[23] So for example a work published in the United Kingdom by a British national would be covered by copyright there but could be copied and sold by anyone in France.

[29] The first version of the Berne Convention treaty was signed on 9 September 1886, by Belgium, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Liberia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.

[31] Although Britain ratified the convention in 1887, it did not implement large parts of it until 100 years later with the passage of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

With the WIPO's Berne revision on Paris 1971,[33] many other countries joined the treaty, as expressed by Brazil federal law of 1975.

[citation needed] Since almost all nations are members of the World Trade Organization, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) requires non-members to accept almost all of the conditions of the Berne Convention.

The Berne Convention was intended to be revised regularly in order to keep pace with social and technological developments.

In large part, this lengthy drought between revisions comes about because the Treaty gives each member state the right to veto any substantive change.

The vast number of signatory countries, plus their very different development levels, makes it exceptionally difficult to update the convention to better reflect the realities of the digital world.

[40] Legal academic Rebecca Giblin has argued that one reform avenue left to Berne members is to "take the front door out".