[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[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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