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ABSTRACT: This article examines the 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization 'Internet treaties' in Canada and Mexico to ascertain whether smaller countries can sustain policy autonomy within international copyright treaties, and in response to lobbying by larger states. Treaty implementation in the two countries reflects domestic institutional, economic, and political actors and ideas. Even though Mexico and Canada are highly interdependent with the United States (the main proponent of the Internet treaties), they do have some influence in determining whether and how to implement the treaties. While the United States influences copyright reform in its neighbours, both countries' policies continue to be shaped significantly by domestic factors. These two cases suggest that domestic circumstances partly shapes the implementation of copyright laws in smaller countries.
Introduction
In an attempt to increase its competitive advantage in copyrightable works and in response to the technological challenges posed by the digital revolution, the United States has aggressively pursued changes to other countries' copyright and intellectual property laws since the mid-1980s. Spurred by its content industries-the music, motion picture, computer software, and publishing industries-the United States has made copyright reform a standard demand in its trade agreements. For example, the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which introduced enforceable baseline global copyright standards, was the U.S. price for the creation of the World Trade Organization1. In 2010, several countries, including Canada and Mexico, concluded the U.S.-led Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). This treaty, despite its name, is as focused on requiring that other countries adopt U.S.-style copyright laws as on preventing counterfeiting.
Numerous studies highlight a global convergence, driven by treaties and trade agreements, toward a U.S.-style view of copyright as an economic right to be maximised in favour of copyright owners, at the expense of both users and the actual creators of creative works (Drahos & Braithwaite, 2002; May, 2000; Sell, 2003). This observed harmonisation raises important questions about the extent to which smaller countries are 'policy takers' with respect to international copyright treaties and whether they can implement copyright policies in line with the desires and needs of their citizens.
Through an examination of Canadian and Mexican dígita I-copyright policy reform, this article explores the extent to which smaller developed and developing countries can exercise copyright...