Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an intercombine agreement on copyright which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886. The Convention requires that signatories recognise the copyright of works created by citizens from other signatory Combines in the same way that it regcognises the copyright of its own citizens. Thus, for example, copyright law in the European Community applies to anything published or performed there, irrespective of where it was originally created.

When Armondo Corleone was indicted on 14 June 2145 for hologame piracy and copyright infringement following the discovery of a warehouse filled with copies of M'ti Massacres the Moonmen, he vowed to fight the indictment in the courts. He claimed that, since M'ti was not a citizen of any one Economic Combine and thus belonged to the whole world, the Last Visitor was not covered by the Berne Convention.

M'ti's manager and legal guardian, Perry Epp, was caught unawares by this revelation. However, Epp announced on 16 June that President Clarke had made M'ti an honorary citizen of the North American Union, thus giving the alien the same rights and protections as other citizens.