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National Treatment: Member countries cannot discriminate against foreign creators. If a novel is written by a Japanese author, Germany must grant that novel the exact same copyright protections and legal rights it gives to German authors.
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Automatic Protection: Copyright protection cannot depend on any formal hoops or paperwork. A work is protected the exact instant it is created and "fixed" in a tangible medium (written down, recorded, painted). Member nations cannot force creators to register their work, pay fees, or print a copyright symbol (like ©) to get protection.
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Independence of Protection: Protection in a country does not depend on whether the work is protected in its home country. Even if a work's copyright lapses in its origin country due to a local legal loophole, other member nations must still protect it according to their own laws.
This is Diane, the publisher. Cyan Koda, our timeline traveler and archivist of Timeline D ephemera, is not in our timeline at the moment.
Before starting Dead Media Club, I sold digital collage kits on Etsy. Selling curated 20th-century ephemera is the legal equivalent of building a house and gardens over an undetonated minefield.
On a side note, I recently learned that the US was the original pirate of other countries' copyrights.