Hey mate

My name's Mahesh Sharma, i'm a freelance technology journalist. How are you?

I'm researching the TPPA and its impact on the intellectual property rights of Australians. 

http://www.zdnet.com.au/ban-piracy-liability-from-trade-talks-telstra-339309255.htm

I was wondering if you had any more information about the impact on the local industry as well as the negotiations that have been going on..

Am keen to hear your thoughts.


Freelance journalist
Mobile: 0421 213 517
Twitter (MSTechFreelance)
Aussie start-ups (http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/bootstrappr/)




On 5 February 2011 18:56, Ben Finney <ben+freesoftware@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
Howdy guys,

At the January 2011 meeting, I talked about the Trans-Pacific
Partnership. Here is the information for the group.

Short version:

It's pretty bad. We need to lobby government to stop this. There's
hope that other nations seem partially aware of the problems.


The Trans-Pacific Partnership <URL:http://www.ustr.gov/tpp> is a plan
currently being effected by the USA's Office of the United States
Trade Representative.

   […] a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement, known as the
   Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement with the objective of
   shaping a high-standard, broad-based regional pact.
   […]

   The first round of negotiations took place from March 15-19 in
   Melbourne, Australia. The second round of negotiations took place
   from June 14-18 in San Francisco, California.

   USTR is currently conducting an unprecedented fifty-state domestic
   outreach strategy for TPP. Read about our outreach events and
   updates on our TPP outreach page.

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has been discussing the leaked
internals of this secretive international pact.

   Industry is asking the US government for a number of TRIPS plus,
   WCT plus and ACTA plus provisions:

   - To seek the highest possible IP protection from TPP negotiating parties.

   - To built upon existing FTAs and use the US/Korea Free Trade
     Agreement as a baseline. Although the letter does not
     specifically mention the May 10, 2007 compromise that included
     important public health flexibilities in the US/Peru FTA, US
     Industry is clearly demanding the US government to reject the
     compromise as the basis for negotiations.

   - To go beyond the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). For
     instance, it states that the TPP should outlaw camcording in
     theaters, despite the fact that the ACTA made it optional for
     countries to have criminal penalties for camcording.

   <URL:http://keionline.org/node/1034>

Public Knowledge reminds us that this is “ACTA the sequel”.

   While a text may not have been drafted yet, content owners are
   doing their bit to ensure that the TPP would contain IP provisions
   that aggressively protect their interests at the expense of the
   rest of ours. A paper prepared by the U.S. Business Coalition for
   TPP (reported to be drafted by the Pharmaceutical Research and
   Manufactures of America, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the
   Motion Picture Association of America) and leaked on the Internet,
   indicates that rights holders are urging the USTR to include in
   TPP IP protections more extensive than those present in ACTA.
   Specifically, the paper suggests that the following issues be
   addressed in TPP:

   * Temporary copies: [cached or intermediate copies within a
     computer]

   * Circumvention of digital locks: [harsher DRM enforcement]

   * Copyright terms: The paper urges the TPP to provide for longer
     copyright terms.

   * Statutory damages: [ignore putative damages suffered by
     plaintiff; instead, calculate damages as multiple of nominal fee
     for use]

   The coalition suggests many other worrisome provisions such as
   requiring ISPs to act as copyright cops and treating individual
   infringers with the same severity as large-scale pirates.

   <URL:http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/acta-sequel-transpacific-partnership-agreemen>


The above article at Public Knowledge also discusses a leaked document
within the NZ government, which shows a good awareness of the issues
raised by the TPP in light of similar regimes and their effects on
economies and freedom.

--
 \        “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you |
 `\     have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither |
_o__)                       on your side, pound the table.” —anonymous |
Ben Finney <ben@benfinney.id.au>

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