
New TPP Leaked Text Reveals Weakening Resistance to Copyright Proposals - walterbell
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/08/new-tpp-leaked-text-reveals-weakening-resistance-maximalist-proposals
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walterbell
In other TPP news, [http://www.zdnet.com/article/nz-it-industry-mobilises-to-
fig...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/nz-it-industry-mobilises-to-fight-tpp-
software-patent-threat/)

 _" New Zealand largely banned patent protection for software two years ago
... However, leaked Trans Pacific Partnership documents now indicate the same
government that passed that law, with cross-party support in a vote of 117 to
4, is prepared to reintroduce patents in return for better market access for
dairy products."_

[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150808/05331531886/why-t...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150808/05331531886/why-
tpp-threatens-to-undermine-one-fundamental-principles-science.shtml)

" _.. data exclusivity is a kind of super-patent in that it can 't be
challenged or revoked: if a drug company has run clinical trials to establish
the safety of its new drug, it has an absolute and irrevocable monopoly on the
use of that data ... Granting data exclusivity is thus nothing less than
giving a monopoly on knowledge itself, since it forbids any other company from
being able to use that newly-established scientific fact._"

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phaemon
The very fact that this is being negotiated in secret shows that the people
involved _know_ it is wrong. Any law that comes out of this "agreement" should
be considered completely invalid.

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aw3c2
Not necessarily. They might be under the impression that the public does not
fully understand the economics and how the world really works.

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gmac
Also, although transparency always sounds wonderful, negotiating a treaty in
the open is potentially very difficult: the media are liable to trumpet a
'humiliating U-turn!' any time someone ends up negotiating to a new position,
even though that's kind of the point.

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retrogradeorbit
So this is kept secret to avoid hurting some bureaucrat's feelings?

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TeMPOraL
I think GP's point is that media will take the most idiotic view of the
problem possible; it's not about hurting bureaucrat's feelings, it's about
people hurting themselves by mindless, knee-jerk reactions.

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beedogs
The oligarchs will have their way on this one sooner or later. Just keep
beating the negotiators over the head with it until they surrender.

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eikenberry
It is becoming clearer and clearer that we are in a time where to be a good
person you must break laws.

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arianvanp
If TTIP leads to re-introducing software patents in the EU proper,so that I
can get cheap meat from the US, I'm literally (no not figuratively, don't post
the XKCD) gonna lose my mind.

~~~
teekert
Since we-re all wondering now:
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/literally.png](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/literally.png)
;)

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shmerl
DRM lobby makes anything it touches a toxic thing. Anti-circumvention laws are
based on unethical foundation (i.e. DRM), and anyone who pushes for that
garbage should be viewed accordingly.

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daemin
I wonder when the TPP will become so unpopular as to cause its negotiations to
be abandoned. But I don't think that will happen, the parties involved have
already sunk enough cost into it that they cannot leave.

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rodgerd
The minister "negotiating" (and I use that word in the loosest possible sense)
for New Zealand anounced publicly he is "too emotionally invested to walk
away". Which makes him as an absolute cretin (or a mark, if you're a poker
player). But it's hardly surprising because he's spent 30 years either in the
civil service or as a professional politician trying to get something like
this passed. So your latter point is absolutely true. Groser has an absolutely
religious position on this topic. New Zealand as a country will sacrifice
pretty much anything to appease his desire to have this "accomplishment" for a
zealot.

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nomercy400
Thusfar I've been seeing only negative articles about TTIP. What are the
positive sides? What will it give us in return?

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michaelt
A charitable view would be that that politicians earnestly believe the treaty
improves free trade, lowering the barriers to trade so everyone in every
country better off.

A cynic would say politicians want to pass laws that will be popular with
their cronies but unpopular with voters, and they want to pass the blame to
faceless foreign bureaucrats. e.g. "I'm sorry the tax bills for huge
multinationals have been slashed - I don't like it any more than you do! It's
these international treaties you see, I'm powerless to change anything"

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tzs
> A cynic would say politicians want to pass laws that will be popular with
> their cronies but unpopular with voters

What makes you think TPP will be unpopular with voters? See [1].

[1] [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/23/americans-
fa...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/23/americans-favor-tpp-
but-less-than-other-countries-do/)

