The Berne Convention, also known as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, is an international agreement regarding copyrights.
The Berne Convention agreement states that authors and artists are automatically entitled to the rights of their work upon publication of their work. This applies to all nations who agreed to the treaty.
The goal of the Berne Convention is to protect creators of original work from international copyright infringement.
The Berne Convention took place in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886. Many nations have agreed to join the agreement since then. It took the United States more than 100 years to join, which it finally did in 1989. There are 163 nations that are currently a part of the Berne Convention.