The international copyright relations of Russia were virtually non-existent for much of the Imperial era continuing into the history of the Soviet Union until the Cold War. The Russian Empire had only a few bilateral copyright treaties with other nations were concluded; these treaties moreover were weak and of short duration. The treaties from Imperial times had all expired by the time of the Russian Revolution.
After the October Revolution, the Soviet Union had no international copyright relations until 1967, when a first treaty with Hungary was concluded. In 1973, the USSR then joined the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), establishing copyright relations with Western countries. More bilateral treaties followed, including two with Western countries (Austria in 1981 and Sweden in 1986), until the government announced its intention to join the Berne Convention in 1989. The USSR was dissolved before that plan could be realized. The Russian Federation acceded to the Berne Convention in 1994; the treaty entered in force in Russia on March 13, 1995.
Imperial Russia International copyright treaties
International copyright is based on national treatment: signatory countries of a treaty are obliged to grant copyright on foreign works according to their own national laws.Pilch 2004, p. 83. In the field of "classic" copyright (or author's rights), three main treaties exist: The Berne Convention (BC) dates to 1886 and was amended several times. It defined the minimal rights of those who produced creative scientific, literary, and artistic works, prescribing a general minimum duration of copyright of 50 years p.m.a.Berne Convention, articles 2 and 7. The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) was adopted in 1952 (and revised in 1971) as a less stringent alternative to the BC for countries who considered the BC too demanding. If a country signed both the UCC and the BC, the BC had precedence in dealings with other BC countries.Lewinski p. 1. The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) of 1996 became effective in 2002. It was an extension of the BC covering computer programs and databases.WIPO: Summary of the WIPO Copyright Treaty. URL last accessed 2007-01-25. In the field of neighbouring rights, two important treaties are: The Rome Convention of 1961 was the equivalent to the BC for performers, phonogram producers, and broadcasting institutions.WIPO: Summary of the Rome Convention. URL last accessed 2007-01-25. The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) of 1996 entered in force in 2002. It was an update on the Rome Convention.WIPO: Summary of the WPPT. URL last accessed 2007-01-25.
Additionally, the TRIPS agreement from 1994 defined minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property rights for WTO member countries. First international copyright treaties were concluded in Spring 1861 with France and in July 1862 with Belgium. Both treaties provided for reciprocal copyright protection, but were limited to literature only; translation rights were not covered, and censorship was explicitly allowed. Both treaties were abrogated in 1887.Elst p. 67.
Under Western pressure, new treaties were concluded in 1904 with Germany, in 1905 with France, and in 1906 with Austria-Hungary. After the new copyright law of 1911 was passed, new or renewed treaties were concluded with Germany (1911), France (1911), Belgium (1913/14), and Denmark (1915). All these treaties provided for reciprocal copyright protection and also included the author's translation rights, which were protected for a period of ten years from the original publication of a work.Elst p. 70. These treaties were of short duration only and expired after three to five years.Elst p. 71. Tsarist Russia even planned to join the Berne Convention in the early 20th century, but that was, according to Stoyanovitch, prevented by the outbreak of World War I.Stoyanovitch, K.: Le droit d'auteur dans les rapports entre la France et les pays socialistes, p. 187 in Pichon, R.; Durand-Auzias, R.: Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence; Paris 1959.
USSR See also Accession of the USSR to the UCC in 1973 After the October Revolution, the Soviet Union initially had no international copyright relations at all.Elst p. 80. During the period of the New Economic Policy (NEP), the Soviet regime unsuccessfully tried to conclude new bilateral copyright treaties with Great Britain, Germany, and Italy.Elst p. 77. After these failed attempts, the USSR maintained an isolationist policy in copyright matters until the late 1960s. A first bilateral copyright treaty with Hungary became effective on November 17, 1967, and on October 8, 1971, a second treaty with Bulgaria followed. Both treaties provided for reciprocal copyright protection with a general term of 15 years p.m.a. and also explicitly defined reciprocity for free uses.Elst p. 80, pointing out that Soviet works could be freely translated in Bulgaria under this reciprocity because of the freedom of translation granted by Soviet law.Newcity p. 137ff, who explains that the treaty with Hungary was limited to citizens of both countries residing in these countries, works of citizens residing abroad were not covered. Newcity also explains that the reciprocity for free uses worked to the disadvantage of Soviet authors because Soviet law had broader free uses, and Soviet authors thus did not receive royalties they otherwise would have received under Hungarian or Bulgarian law.
On February 27, 1973, the Soviet Union deposited with the UNESCO its declaration of accession to the Geneva version of 1952 of the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC).UNESCO: Universal Copyright Convention adopted at Geneva in 1952 and annexed Protocols 1, 2 and 3: State of ratifications, acceptances and accessions up to 1 January 2000. , note 29. URL last accessed 2006-11-02. Three months later, on May 27, 1973, the UCC entered in force with respect to the USSR, establishing copyright relations with Western countries.Elst p. 81. The USSR timed its accession to the UCC to occur before the 1971 Paris version of the UCC entered in force.Elst, p. 82, footnote 147. Once the Paris version had become effective, accessions to the earlier Geneva version were no longer possible. The USSR would then have been forced to implement the somewhat stronger provisions of the 1971 Paris version, which in particular explicitly recognized an author's exclusive rights to reproduction, performance, and broadcast of a work. Such neighbouring rights did not exist in Soviet law.
With the accession of the Soviet Union to the UCC, Soviet works published on or after May 27, 1973 became eligible to copyright in all other signatory countries of the UCC. Conversely, foreign works became copyrighted in the Soviet Union by virtue of the UCC if they were published on or after May 27, 1973 and the publication occurred in a UCC country or the author was a citizen of a UCC country.Elst p. 83.
There were initially fears in the West that the Soviet authorities could misuse the provisions of the UCC to censor undesirable works abroad: the regime could compulsorily purchase the copyright on such works without the authors' consent and then sue in foreign courts against the publication of Soviet works abroad, since the copyright would be owned by the state.Newcity p. 151ff. However, this did not occur. Evidently, the Soviet authorities considered the measures provided by its other laws—in particular articles 70 and 190(1) of the RSFSR Criminal Code on anti-Soviet agitationElst, p. 50–51. Article 190(1) was introduced in 1966 in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, after the trial against Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, in which the prosecution had found it difficult to prove the intent to do harm that was required by article 70. The new article 190(1) made the "dissemination of known falsehoods that defame the Soviet political and social system" a criminal offense and didn't stipulate any intention at all. Similar provisions existed in the other republics' laws.—sufficient to deal with dissidents without needing to resort to actions based on the copyright law. Furthermore, such actions would have badly damaged the prestige of the USSR abroad, and it was doubtful whether foreign countries would have honored such nationalizations.Elst p. 84, pointing out that French courts denied any effect in France of the nationalizations in 1919 of the works of 17 Russian composers. The U.S. included in its Copyright law of 1976 an article 201(e) that explicitly invalidated all involuntary transfers of copyright. This provision was included in the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 precisely to prevent attempts of the Soviet government to employ the UCC to censor dissidents' works in the U.S.Nimmer, M.B.; Nimmer, D.: Nimmer on Copyright, §10.04 at 10-56.5. On November 6, 1978, 17 U.S.C. 201(e) was amended by adding "except as provided under title 11". Title 11 of the United States Code covers bankruptcy.—although no such attempts had occurred yet and didn't occur afterwards.Elst p. 85.
Despite having joined the UCC, the Soviet Union continued its policy of bilateral agreements. New treaties with the German Democratic Republic (effective November 21, 1973), Poland (October 4, 1974), and Czechoslovakia (March 18, 1975) were concluded. The 1967 treaty with Hungary had already been prolonged in 1971 and was again renewed in 1977, the treaty with Bulgaria was renewed in 1975. The treaties with Hungary and Czechoslovakia also included a provision for the protection of the moral rights "without limitation in time".Elst p. 606. In 1981, the first bilateral treaty with a Western country was signed: the copyright treaty with Austria entered in force on December 16, 1981.Dittrich pp. 760–768.Elst p. 89f. On May 30, 1985, a treaty with Cuba followed,Elst p. 495. and in 1986 the second treaty with a Western country was concluded with Sweden.Elst p. 367, pointing out that the treaty with Sweden explicitly also covered photographic works and also included the protection of the moral rights. All these post-UCC treaties went beyond the provisions of the UCC because they were applied retroactivelyElst p. 90. and explicitly applied also to works published before the USSR had joined the UCC and that were still copyrighted in their source country in 1973.Gavrilov, E. P.: Lettre de l'U.R.S.S.: Evolution récente du droit d'auteur soviétique, pp. 226–246 in Le Droit d'Auteur 1987. (The treaty with Austria was amended to cover such pre-1973 works in 1989.Elst p. 367.) On April 19, 1989, another copyright treaty with Madagascar was concluded.Gavrilov, E. P.: Lettre de l'U.R.S.S.: Evolution récente du droit d'auteur soviétique, pp. 364–380 in Le Droit d'Auteur 1990. The treaty with the German Democratic Republic was rescinded by the USSR on June 2, 1991, following confusions about its continued applicability after the German reunification.
On October 20, 1988, the USSR acceded to the Brussels Convention about measures against the unauthorized (re-)distribution of satellite transmissions. The treaty became effective for Russia from January 20, 1989 on.WIPO: Brussels Convention – Contracting Parties: Details – Russian Federation. Also in 1989, the Soviet government announced its intention to join the Berne Convention, but the USSR was dissolved before that plan could be realized.