Howdy all, As discussed at this month's FSM meeting, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been signed by many countries including Australia — all prior to any of those countries's citizens get to discuss what's in the agreement. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation analysed the final leaked text of the TPP, in particular its section on so-called “intellectual property”. Electronic Frontiers Australia has the story: Today [2015-10-09]'s release by Wikileaks of what is believed to be the current and essentially final version of the intellectual property (IP) chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) confirms our worst fears about the agreement, and dashes the few hopes that we held out that its most onerous provisions wouldn't survive to the end of the negotiations. URL:https://www.efa.org.au/2015/10/12/final-leaked-tpp-text/ We still can stop this coming into effect in Australia. The agreement is international, but it only touches the ground when signatory countries convince their governments to enact laws. Our federal government needs to hear from all of us, and be convinced of the harms this awful deal with have for all citizens. If we don't make our voices loud, then the US Trade Representative, and the transnational corporations it represents, will be dominating our government's view on this. Stay tuned to the EFA as they rally for Australian citizens to stand against the undemocratic corruption of our freedoms. -- \ “A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.” | `\ —Adlai Ewing Stevenson | _o__) | Ben Finney