Russia withdraws Berne reservation

WIPO-watchers and copyright nerds will already have spotted Berne Notification No. 258: Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which bears the following news:

Notification by the Russian Federation: Withdrawal of Declaration Concerning Article 18 of the Paris Act (1971)

The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to refer to the deposit, on December 9, 1994, by the Government of the Russian Federation, of its instrument of accession to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of September 9, 1886, as revised at Paris on July 24, 1971, and amended on September 28, 1979 with a declaration according to which the effects of the said Convention shall not extend to the works which, at the date of entry into force of the Convention with respect to the Russian Federation, are already in the public domain in its territory. See Berne Notification No. 162 of December 13, 1994.

In this respect, the Director General has the honor to notify that the Government of the Russian Federation has deposited, on January 31, 2013, a notification withdrawing the above-mentioned declaration.

January 31, 2013

A handy explanation of the background to this move, and to what it means, can be found on the Wikipedia page entitled International Copyright Relations of Russia.