erwards joined.
Austria and Hungary have a separate convention with Great Britain,
concluded on the 24th of April 1893. The notable absentees among
European powers are Holland and Russia. So far as the United States is
concerned, the matter is regulated by the American copyright acts, which
are dealt with separately below.

The basis of the Bern convention was that authors of any of the
countries of the Union, or the publishers of works first published in
one of them, should enjoy in each of the other countries of the Union
the same rights as the law of that country granted to native authors.
The only conditions were that the work should comply with the necessary
formalities, such as registration, in the country where it was first
published, in which case it was exempt from all such formalities
elsewhere; and that the protection required from any country should not
exceed that given in the country of origin. The rights conferred
included the sole right of making a translation of the work for ten
years from its first publication. The convention was retrospective; that
is to say, it applied to copyright works published before its coming
into existence, each country being allowed to protect vested interests,
or copies already made by others, as it should think best.

The rights of foreign authors in Great Britain rest on legislation
giving effect to the Bern convention, namely, the International
Copyright Act of 1886, and an order in council made under that act,
dated 28th November 1887. These confer on the author or publisher of a
work of literature or art first published in one of the countries which
are parties to the convention, after compliance with the formalities
necessary there, the same rights as if the work had been first published
in the United Kingdom, provided that those rights are not greater than
those enjoyed in the foreign country.

The rights of British authors in foreign countries rest in each country
on the domestic legislation by which the particular country has given
effect to its promise contained in the Bern convention, and are enforced
by the courts of that country. The Bern convention was revised in minor
details not affecting its broad principles by a conference meeting in
1896 in Paris, and Great Britain adopted the results of their labours by
an order in council dated 7th March 1898. A further simplification in
the international law of copyright was expected to result from the
efforts of the