Sarah, it took me a few minutes to find this, but here is information about the Berne Convention:
"The Berne Convention was developed at the instigation of Victor Hugo as the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale. Thus it was influenced by the French "right of the author" (droit d'auteur), which contrasts with the Anglo-Saxon concept of "copyright" which only dealt with economic concerns. Under the Convention, copyrights for creative works are automatically in force at creation, without being asserted or declared: an author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works, unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them or until the copyright expires. Foreign authors were treated equivalently to domestic authors, in any country that signed the Convention. Victor-Marie Hugo (pronounced in French) (26 February 1802 — 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France. ... Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI) was founded 1878 in Paris. ... The droit dauteur (or French copyright law) developed in the eighteenth century at the same time as copyright developed in the United Kingdom. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... A creative work is a tangible manifestation of creative effort such as literature, paintings, software, and this article."
It has been revised many times, latest revision was 1979 and I believe to date the Berne Convention has been signed by and adhered to by 163 countries.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...Artistic-Works