What laws cover copyright protection in the U.S. and

In the U.S., copyright protection derives from the U.S. Constitution, which
requires that original works of authorship be protected by copyright. The current
(and exclusive) source of this protection is the federal Copyright Act of 1976, as
amended. There are no state copyright laws.

Copyright protection rules are fairly similar worldwide, due to several international
copyright treaties, the most important of which is the Berne Convention.
Under this treaty, all member countries (in excess of 100 countries, including
virtually all industrialized countries) must afford copyright protection to authors
who are nationals of any member country. This protection must last for at least the
life of the author plus 50 years and must be automatic, without the need for the
author to take any legal steps to preserve the copyright.

In addition to the Berne Convention, the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade) treaty contains a number of provisions that affect copyright protection
in signatory countries. Together, the Berne Copyright Convention and the GATT
treaty allow U.S. authors to enforce their copyrights in most industrialized nations,
and allow the nationals of those nations to enforce their copyrights in the U.S.