In December 2020, US Congress passed both the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act and the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act as part of a year-end legislative package, including Covid-19 relief, under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
The CASE Act has been a priority for authors and many types of creators in the US who have difficulty seeing their rights enforced due to the typical costs and complexities of going to court. Having seen successes of a streamlined small-claims copyright court in other countries, IAF advocated for and supported American authors calling for the passing of the CASE Act.
We hope that the implementation of the CASE Act works effectively to support authors. We will continue to work with US organisations to support its implementation and see what can be learned for streamlined small-claims copyright courts in other countries.