Mexico Senate approves internet provider liability reform for piracy under USMCA, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): The Senate of the Republic approved a reform to the Federal Copyright Law that requires internet service providers (ISPs) to take an active role in pursuing piracy. Backed by the Federal Executive, the measure is presented as meeting intellectual property requirements of the USMCA, the trade agreement among Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Under the reform, telephone and connectivity companies will lose their “safe harbor,” the legal shield that previously exempted them from liability for content published by their customers. They could be fined up to 4.6 million pesos if it is shown that they indirectly profited from the infringement or failed to cut service to repeat infringing users.
The reform explicitly sets out two scenarios in which providers would lose legal immunity. The first is knowledge and complicity, when a company contributes to, induces or deliberately causes the infringing conduct while fully aware of it.
The second is control and benefit, when a provider has the technical capacity to control the infringing user and receives a direct financial benefit from the illicit activity.
The majority Morena caucus said the initiative does not promote mass surveillance or content espionage. The opposition PRI, PAN and Movimiento Ciudadano, however, raised alarms about self-censorship and a perverse incentive.
Fines range from 500 to 40,000 UMA (Unidades de Medida y Actualización), and opposition parties warned that companies may preemptively remove legitimate publications, journalistic investigations or citizen complaints rather than risk costly litigation with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI).
To operate under the law, all internet service providers in Mexico must quickly implement three measures. These are a public disconnection policy to suspend or permanently terminate contracts of users classified as “repeat” infringers; contractual transparency, with such clauses visibly included in terms and conditions on their websites; and a minimum notification mechanism so affected users learn the reasons for the removal of their service or content.
Data cited in the opinion from the Asociación Protectora de Derechos Intelectuales Fonográficos (APDIF) show the scale of the problem. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, more than 127 million infringing items were removed from Mexico’s digital ecosystem, an average of 348,000 takedowns per day.
With the new legislation, the government seeks to shift responsibility for controlling these massive flows directly to private infrastructure.
