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[Pages S239-S240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UNITED STATES-MEXICO-CANADA TRADE AGREEMENT
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, in addition to my strong and unequivocal
support for the USMCA, I note that my committee is about to undertake a
yearlong review of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with the goal
of modernizing it.
Back in 1998, the internet was still a fledgling industry, so much so
that it is difficult to recall a time when email was a novel form of
communication and you could go take a coffee break in
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hopes that the web page you wanted would have fully loaded on your
computer by the time you returned. It was in this era that the DMCA
attempted to strike a reasonable balance between content creators and
the operators of online billboards. The DMCA offered immunity to new,
emerging platforms in exchange for reasonable enforcement efforts,
including quickly taking down copyrighted materials they learned about
violations. In 1998, there were no iPhones. There was no Facebook and
no YouTube. Netflix opened that year as a mail-order DVD store. For a
time, the DMCA worked.
President Trump has led the way to establish a new paradigm for trade
agreements that protect American interests, and the USMCA provides for
long overdue updates to NAFTA, but the mechanisms of the DMCA to deter
copyright infringement need to be updated. Technology has changed
faster than anyone could have ever imagined, and the existing DMCA
simply isn't able to address these new developments. The original DMCA
was simply not designed for the kind of global data and advertising
platforms that we have seen develop over time. As is so often the case,
the technology has outpaced the law.
I intend to hold a series of hearings this year to explore whether
the DMCA needs updating in order to promote the creative economy in the
21st century. This work is critical to North Carolina jobs in the
creative sector. For example, the motion picture and television
industry is directly responsible for more than 19,000 jobs in North
Carolina, representing more than $1 billion in wages in the State.
Productions like the series ``Reprisal'' and the upcoming film Uncle
Frank were made in North Carolina in 2019. The good, high-wage jobs in
the film and television industry, from directors, musicians, and
actors, to drivers, makeup artists, painters, and set decorators, are
at risk if the products they make lose money due to internet theft.
Without prejudging what changes may be necessary to the DMCA, it is
important that our future trade agreements can keep up with the
advances of U.S. copyright law. I look forward to working together with
my colleagues in the House and Senate and with the White House to
ensure we improve the DMCA and create more export opportunities for
U.S. businesses and workers in the process. As always, our trade
agreements and our copyright law should do all they can to create good
incentives and empower market forces to solve problems.
Mr. President, I applaud the inclusion of national treatment language
in this agreement, requiring nondiscriminatory treatment of American
creators and their goods.
This protects many American goods, of course, but I want to make
special note that the inclusion of this provision in USMCA will help
undo one particular instance of discrimination/unfair treatment against
American creators. It will help ensure that American music creators are
fairly compensated when their recordings are played in Canada and
Mexico.
Our expectation is that American performers will see an increase in
royalty compensation as a result. As it stands today, Canadian artists
receive all royalties due under U.S. law for the use of sound
recordings here. Those royalties totaled nearly a billion dollars last
year for all recordings.
We afford the recordings of all foreign nationals with the same
rights due for the recordings of American artists. In Canada, however,
royalties collected for radio airplay and other nondigital public
performances of sound recordings made by Americans currently are NOT
shared with the American performers who create them.
I encourage the administration to ensure inclusion of this protection
for American creators in all trade agreements going forward. American
music is by far the most listened to in the world, and we should do all
we can to ensure our American music creators are treated fairly by our
trade partners.
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