

Understanding TPP, ACTA's nastier, more secret little brother - DiabloD3
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120402/09551618327/where-tpp-goes-beyond-acta-how-it-shows-us-future-ip-enforcement.shtml

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srl
TPP is the "Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership". It does a lot of
stuff outside of IP law (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-
Pacific_Strategic_Econom...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-
Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership)).

Two things. First of all, TPP looks far scarier than every other law and
agreement I've seen proposed so far. All previous attempts had at least been
somewhat disguised as being limited - there was a clear effort to make the
(dubious) claim that "they won't effect _you_ ". That seems to be gone now. I
think the TC article does a pretty bad job of pointing out how strong TPP is,
actually.

Secondly, these nasty provisions popped up only in the US proposal (IIUC), and
yet, many of them run contrary to established US case law, and would
circumvent current reform efforts. This agreement has quite clearly become a
forum for the MPAA/RIAA/MAFIA lobbyists who couldn't get their policies passed
out in the open. It fairly reeks of underhandedness.

~~~
read_wharf
Opinion, and somewhat OT: I think a lot of people who would/are naturally
against these sorts of agreements and laws are also Obama supporters. The
Obama administration doesn't just support these laws, it soaks in them. This
is among the worst results of voting for one candidate because he's not the
other candidate.

We need to start voting our real interests, not our negative interests.

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aerique
It is pretty clear by now that the involved corporations and lobbyists will
not stop until most of what they want has been implemented by law all over the
world.

What can be done on a more meta-level to stop them from even trying? So
instead of opposing each and every *PA/TTP, what can be done to make it futile
for them to try and get these implemented? (because sooner of later they will
have the laws they want)

~~~
EvilTerran
If we could somehow get laws on the books that forbade the worst bits of what
big business are trying to ram through, perhaps.

In the US, for instance, I guess this would be something like a constitutional
amendment protecting internet traffic as free speech, or forbidding the
government from enforcing copyright as a criminal offence (I'm not convinced
it shouldn't be dealt with in the civil courts)...

... or maybe even just enforcing more openness in the procedures by which
legislation is written, so it's far easier for the public/press to see "oh
look, this proposal massively favours <supercorp>, who just happen to be
throwing money at the primary sponsor WELL ISN'T THAT INTERESTING".

Not that that sort of thing is ever gonna happen. There's no incentive for the
legislators to do so, and plenty for them not to.

~~~
pwg
>or forbidding the government from enforcing copyright as a criminal offense
(I'm not convinced it shouldn't be dealt with in the civil courts)...

This is a very good point. At the moment, because copyright is given criminal
provisions, the big media companies get to have their investigation, their
prosecution, and their punishment mostly all paid for by the taxpayers.

Yet, in the other leg of "IP", that being patents, there is no criminal
provision, and so the owner of a patent has to bear the full burden of paying
for the investigation and paying for the prosecution of any infringement.

So, if patents can work with only civil court procedure, where the attacker
has to pay his/her full costs himself (1) why should copyright be "special" in
providing for criminal prosecution?

(1) I'm skipping over "loser pays" concepts, because even with "loser pays",
the attacker still has to pay up until the point they finally win in court
before they get any money back. They don't get free, government tax funded,
assistance right from the start.

------
Joakal
The article is a little out of date, interest groups were recently blocked
from participating: [http://pirateparty.org.au/2012/04/05/tppa-negotiation-
farce-...](http://pirateparty.org.au/2012/04/05/tppa-negotiation-farce-must-
end-pirate-party/)

I've written more about what to do (For Australians) in my side project:
[https://pay.reddit.com/r/AUInternetAccess/comments/rtwm8/tak...](https://pay.reddit.com/r/AUInternetAccess/comments/rtwm8/taking_action_on_tpp_treaty_as_part_of_civic_duty/)

