On September 9, 1886, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the first multilateral international copyright treaty, was signed in Berne, Switzerland by Belgium, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Liberia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom. The United States was represented at the conference, but did not become a signatory until March 1, 1989, more than a century later, when the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 was enacted. The Berne Convention, which to date has been joined by 167 countries, is one of two principal international copyright conventions, the other being the 1952 Universal Copyright Convention, which the U.S. joined in 1955. From the History of Copyright Timeline at the U.S. Copyright Office.

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