Do countries that are not members of the Berne Convention still enjoy the benefits it provides?

Question

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.

Although widely recognized around the world, there are still some countries that are not signatories to the Berne Convention. For example: Palestine, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, etc.

What would happen if an Iranian artist or designer's work is plagiarized by an American company, would they still be protected by the Berne Convention?

What if the aforementioned creative individual later moves to a country that is a member of the Berne Convention? Would there be retrospective application?

Answer 1

No

The Berne Convention requires member states to afford copyright protection equal to their own to works from other member states. A work first published only in non-member state(s) and by citizen(s) of non-member state(s) is not required to be given such protection but such protection is not prohibited either.

A work can not acquire copyright retrospectively if it didn’t have it on creation.