Buenos Aires Convention

Buenos Aires Convention
Convention on Literary and Artistic Copyright
  Signatories to the Buenos Aires Convention
TypeMultilateral
Signed11 August 1910 (1910-08-11)
LocationBuenos Aires, Argentina
Parties18
DepositaryMinistry of Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Republic
LanguagesSpanish, English, Portuguese and French
Full text
Buenos Aires Convention at Wikisource

The Buenos Aires Convention (Third Pan-American Convention) is an international copyright treaty signed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 11 August 1910, providing mutual recognition of copyrights where the work carries a notice containing a statement of reservation of rights (Art. 3). This was commonly done with the phrase "All rights reserved" (Spanish: Todos los derechos reservados; Portuguese: Todos os direitos reservados) next to the copyright notice. This implementation varied as US law only required the author and year of publishing. Copyright protection under the convention is granted for the shorter of the terms of the protecting country and the source country of the work ("rule of the shorter term", Arts. 6, 7). The rather vague nature of the requirement for a statement of reservation led to the development of longer and more legalistic wordings, which have persisted despite the developments in international copyright law.

The convention is specifically retained by the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) of 6 September 1952 (Art. 18 Geneva Act),[1] with the most recent formulation taking precedence in case of conflict. As the Buenos Aires Convention was not modified, the presence of a simple copyright notice was sufficient to ensure mutual recognition of copyright between countries which became parties to the UCC (which only Honduras never did). As of 23 August 2000 (2000-08-23), all parties to the Buenos Aires Convention are also parties to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which provides for mutual recognition of copyright without any formalities (Art. 5.2 Berne).[2]

The Buenos Aires Convention became a "special agreement" in the terms of Article 20 of the Berne Convention. It remains in force, notably for determining the source country of a work and hence the term of protection which is applicable in countries which apply the "rule of the shorter term":[3] when a work is simultaneously published in a Convention State and a non-Convention State, the Convention State will be taken to be the source country regardless of the term of protection in the non-Convention State.

Country Buenos Aires Convention UCC Berne
Argentina 19 April 1950 (1950-04-19) 13 February 1958 (1958-02-13) 10 June 1967 (1967-06-10)
Bolivia 15 May 1914 (1914-05-15) 22 March 1990 (1990-03-22) 4 November 1993 (1993-11-04)
Brazil 31 August 1915 (1915-08-31) 13 January 1960 (1960-01-13) 9 February 1922 (1922-02-09)
Chile 14 June 1955 (1955-06-14) 16 September 1955 (1955-09-16) 5 June 1970 (1970-06-05)
Colombia 23 December 1936 (1936-12-23) 18 June 1976 (1976-06-18) 7 March 1988 (1988-03-07)
Costa Rica 30 November 1916 (1916-11-30) 16 September 1955 (1955-09-16) 10 June 1978 (1978-06-10)
Dominican Republic 31 October 1912 (1912-10-31) 8 May 1983 (1983-05-08) 24 December 1997 (1997-12-24)
Ecuador 27 April 1914 (1914-04-27) 5 June 1957 (1957-06-05) 9 October 1991 (1991-10-09)
Guatemala 28 March 1913 (1913-03-28) 28 October 1964 (1964-10-28) 11 January 1997 (1997-01-11)
Haiti 27 November 1919 (1919-11-27) 16 September 1955 (1955-09-16) 11 January 1996 (1996-01-11)
Honduras 27 April 1914 (1914-04-27) 25 January 1990 (1990-01-25)
Mexico 24 April 1964 (1964-04-24) 12 May 1957 (1957-05-12) 11 June 1967 (1967-06-11)
Nicaragua 15 December 1913 (1913-12-15) 16 August 1961 (1961-08-16) 23 August 2000 (2000-08-23)
Panama 25 November 1913 (1913-11-25) 17 October 1962 (1962-10-17) 8 June 1996 (1996-06-08)
Paraguay 20 September 1917 (1917-09-20) 11 March 1962 (1962-03-11) 2 January 1992 (1992-01-02)
Peru 30 April 1920 (1920-04-30) 16 October 1963 (1963-10-16) 20 August 1988 (1988-08-20)
United States 1 August 1911 (1911-08-01)[4] 16 September 1955 (1955-09-16) 1 March 1989 (1989-03-01)
Uruguay 11 May 1919 (1919-05-11) 12 April 1993 (1993-04-12) 10 July 1967 (1967-07-10)

Sources: U.S. Copyright Office,[5] UNESCO,[6] WIPO[7]