Citation: Alan Story (2003) Burn Berne: Why the Leading International Copyright Convention Must Be Repealed. Houston Law Review (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Burn Berne: Why the Leading International Copyright Convention Must Be Repealed
Download: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/251/1/storyg3r.pdf
Tagged: copyright (RSS), berne convention (RSS)

Summary

Author develops three arguments:

Berne's "national treatment" means state apparatus of countries of the South is deployed to protect interests of copyright holders in rich countries, a formal equality that reinforces substantive inequality
Purported balance of or possibility of balancing copyright between owners and users does not work and is theoretically incoherent and nonapplicable given power inequality between corporate owners in rich countries and users in poor countries
Copyright ideology is not universal but grew out of specific conditions in Western Europe and thus is a coercive incursion into the South

Some points made:

IP revenues flow almost entirely South to North, with US and UK being only countries with positive IP trade balances (US overwhelming share)
Copyright not shown to be vehicle for development of countries the the South
Only South countries original Berne signatories are Haiti and Tunisia

Berne is ultimately beyond balance. It reform is almost impossible as unanimity is required for amendment and:

Concludes with a long list of copyright harms to the South, including unavailability of books and translations.

Theoretical and Practical Relevance

Does not propose any path toward repeal.

For more on book and translation harms, see Copyright and Inequality.