 This hurt the market for American books for 100 years and was only partly remedied in 1891, when the United States passed a limited international copyright law.Although the United States was not alone in denying copyright protection to nonresident foreigners, by waiting until 1988 to join the Berne Convention, the United States was one of the last industrial countries to join.By ratifying the Berne Convention, the United States Congress signaled that it was taking a ""minimalist" approach to compliance" (emphasis original).