On December 19, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5430, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act. The House should be commended for its approval of the USMCA, which contains many provisions that will help strengthen Americans' copyrights in those neighboring nations.
Free State Foundation President Randolph May and I have previously described the pro-copyright merits of the USMCA and called on Congress to pass it. As I explained in my April 2019 Perspectives from FSF Scholars paper, "Trade Agreements Should Include Stronger Online Copyright Protections":
By negotiating for stronger copyright protections and enforcement in international trade agreements, the U.S. can help curb the significant economic losses sustained by American copyright owners. The proposed USMCA, signed by President Trump in October 2018, and likely to be voted on by Congress this year, includes many provisions that would modernize and strengthen protections for Americans' copyrighted works in Canada and Mexico. For instance, under the USMCA, each member nation would be required to secure copyright owners' full enjoyment of exclusive rights in sound recordings and public performances. Each nation would guarantee contractual liberty so that copyright owners can transfer their rights for full value. Also, each nation would make available stronger remedies in civil copyright infringement cases, including injunctive relief as well as statutory damages. And each nation would authorize their border officials to pursue, seize, and destroy pirated goods.
For more, see my similarly-titled October 2019 Perspectives paper, "Trade Agreements Should Strengthen Copyright Protections Against Piracy," which touches on the importance of the USMCA and other pro-copyright trade agreements in the context of the current problem of online piracy of movies and TV content.
Hopefully, the Senate will promptly take up and pass the USMCA in early 2020.
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