International copyright law imposes a solid minimum standard of copyright protection, while requiring a very thin minimum standard of permitted uses. As the Berne Convention (BC) evolved and in 1996 subsequent international Treaties were adopted, international copyright law has increasingly strengthened protection of private rights of exclusion and eschewed setting mandatory permitted uses. Also International law has been progressively interpreted as a limit for States to lay down permitted uses in their laws or to define the scope of existing provisions extensively. This is partly due to how the Three-Step Test set forth by Article 9(2) BC has been understood over time. Originally intended as a way for Berne Union countries to permit reproduction of copyrighted works, the Test has been later intended as a strict method of regulating the system of copyright permitted uses.