Introduction: The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)
Cambodia has just ratified the Berne Convention (the “Convention”) that protects the authors’ works and their rights. A new regulation or law to implement the Convention will be issued soon.
This Convention is based on three basic principles:
* Principle of national treatment: Any works originated in one of the Contracting States shall receive the same protection in each of the other Contracting States.
* Principle of automatic protection: The protection is not subject to the fulfilment of any formality.
* Principle of independence of protection: Protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work. However, if a Contracting State provides for a term of protection longer than the minimum prescribed by the Convention and the work ceases to be protected in the country of origin, the protection may be refused if it has ceased in the country of origin”.