[4] The act also implemented changes arising from the first revision of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1908.

It was subsequently enacted on various dates in the self-governing dominions and "territories under protection" of the British Empire.

The 1911 Act implemented the Berne Convention, which abolished the common law copyright in unpublished works and responded to technological developments by conferring copyright on a new type of works not mentioned in the Berne Convention, namely sound recordings.

[10] The 1911 Act abolished the need for registration at the Stationers' Hall and provided that copyright is established upon the creation of a work.

[4] In Israel, the bulk of amendments were made by the Knesset not to the 1911 Act itself, but to the 1924 Ordinance applying it, resulting in a situation in which the two legal instruments were in conflict – for instance, while the Act set a copyright term of 50 years after the author's death, the Ordinance set a term of 70.

Because the Knesset did not amend the Act to respond to further technological developments, the Courts had to apply the Act's definitions, which were centered on artistic works, or types of works not mentioned in it – for instance, phone books, newspapers, restaurant menus and even the codes of computer programs were legally deemed "books" for copyright purposes, regardless of their (usually nonexistent) artistic value.

In 1912 an Order in Council extended the Copyright Act 1911 to Cyprus and the following territories: Bechuanaland, East Africa, The Gambia, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Northern Nigeria, the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Southern Nigeria, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Uganda and Weihaiwei.

While many of these countries have had their own copyright law for a considerable number of years, most have followed the imperial model developed in 1911.