are signatory states of the Berne Convention. Additionally, Copyright in the European Union is regulated through European Directives. The member states of the European Union have, following a directive, increased the term to life of the author plus 70 years after their death. Although this was not the original intention, the extension applies retroactively; this had the effect that works that had ended up in the public domain because the author was dead for 50 years, received an additional twenty years of protection. European countries follow the principle that copyright protection is granted automatically upon creation of the work. This principle was first established in the Berne Convention (1886), and Article 5 of the Convention expressly forbids any member country to require formal action for copyright protection. Copyright duration by country Countries and respective copyright terms, with length of standard copyright in years are listed. Entries for non-country entities are included: the European Union, Berne Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention, which set minimum terms for their member states or signatories. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), though not included, requires a copyright length of at least 50 years after death. Legend 0, no copyright = Not copyrighted Life + xx years = Copyrighted for authors' lifetime plus xx years after their deaths xx years after publication, creation, etc. = copyrighted for xx years since publication, creation, etc., of works Until year end = Copyrighted until the end of a calendar year, i.e. 31 December, unless otherwise specified Berne = Country has signed the Berne Convention, see Berne in the "Countries, ..." column TRIPS = The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members. This also indicates that this country has at least a minimum of 50 years after the death of the creator until the copyright expires. WCT = The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty, (WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT), is an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996. Table of copyright duration by country See also CERLALC, an intergovernmental organization that promotes the development of book publishing and copyright issues in Latin America and the Caribbean