[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I believe it's the reverse. The current copyright law is based on the Treaty of Berne originally signed in 1887. The Treaty of Berne was basically developed by Victor Hugo the rather rich French author. The US didn't sign the Treaty of Berne until the late 1970's under the copyright law of 1976, sometimes known as the Sonny Bono act, since Sonny Bono died just before the law was rammed through and his death was used as an excuse to pass the law. Signing the treaty had little to do with books, but rather were driven by movie and music copyrights, since that was were all the money was. It coincided with the various Hollywood movie studios (i.e. Disney) wanting to expand their market outside the US, but of course since the US didn't recognize copyrights granted outside the US, the countries outside the US didn't recognize US copyrights.

From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono

Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (/ˈboʊnoʊ/; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher, as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California from 1988 to 1992, and the Republican congressman for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.
The United States Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of copyright by 20 years, was named in honor of Bono when it was passed by Congress nine months after his death. Mary Bono (Sonny's last wife) had been one of the original sponsors of the legislation, commonly known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

A few decades off.