Copyright Amendment Bill, implementing a Three Strike System, introduced on April 27, 2010

(1) On April 27, 2010, the Mexican Congress filed and published a bill to amend the Copyright Law based on the HADOPI model. The bill aimed to protect copyrighted works through internet services providers (ISPs) covering access, hosting, and other service operations.  The purpose of the bill is to implement a three-strikes system that resembles HADOPI 2.

(2) Rights holders can ask the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) to request ISPs to render two warnings to users that allegedly infringe copyrights on the Internet. A third strike could be made by requesting injunctive relief (or “preliminary measures”, but it is unclear what court action would follow). ISPs who do not render the warnings are subject to administrative sanctions. This bill requires that ISPs take the high burden of using different measures to detect repeat infringement users. In return, ISPs are entitled to limited liability provided that they fulfill obligations such as: adopting contract termination policies: not interfering with measures holders implement to protect works: not starting content transmissions themselves: and not knowingly providing their services to infringer users. The bill only refers to access services and does not mention host, search engine, caching, nor indicate the limitations.

(3) As in France, the Mexican bill has attracted the attention of internet groups, including the Mexican international corporation Carlos Slim’s Telmax. These groups have a draft of a new bill that would change the current bill in power planned for review and discussion by the Chamber of Deputies in September this year.