(fwding a failed reply to the "announce" list) In the meantime, here's another acronym negotiated in secret - TiSA: http://wikileaks.com/tisa-financial/ http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/secret-trade-negotiati... Maybe it's a good time to switch my mortgage to a local credit union? Well, the secret is not the deepest possile <https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/trade-in-services-agreement.html#submissions> - at least we (should) know about the negotiations, even if we don't what/how is being negotiated. Some interesting reads about various concerns: - Music Council of Australia <https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/downloads/mca.pdf> - please don't subject Aussie culture to competition on price - it'll be good-bye to Australian specific TV/music - Law Council of Australia <https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/downloads/law-council-of-australia.pdf> - fly-in/fly-out service providers won't be subject to the same services regulations as Australians (e.g. no license required to practice for less than 90 days). Some troubles may exists with the jurisdictions applicable to service contracts. - ACTU <https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/downloads/australian-council-of-trade-unions-submission.pdf> - numerous concerns, mainly related with "The devil is usually in details, and you don't seem to disclose them enough". Of course, among them: labour standards, dispute settlements, public services/govt acquisitions (as one mean a govt can use to absorb shocks in economy - how would you like Abbot's "infrastructure govt" done with fly-in/fly-out overseas workers?) - ANZ <https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/downloads/anz.pdf> - yeah, baby, faster, faster. See, we can't get past stoopid regulations in some Asian countries (e.g. how can we provide "low-risks" loans with land-titles as collateral if we can't own land in that country?). Also, it's annoying that we can't store/process your Australian personal data oversea due to some privacy laws, so let's arrange TiSA in such a way that we can knock those laws out when the time comes. Adrian On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 12:27 AM, Adam Bolte <abolte@systemsaviour.com> wrote:

Howdy all,

The negotiations continue for extortionist mega-corporations, under the guise of the US Trade Representative office, using secretive international trade negotiations to bully Australia, and many other countries, to enact laws favourable only to those corporations.

This is the Trans-Pacific Partnership <URL:http://tppaustralia.org/what-is-the-tppa/>.

Our coming Free Software Melbourne meeting, Thursday 2014-07-17 from 18:00, will feature Jon Lawrence from Electronic Frontiers Foundation, to lead a discussion about this deal which will have profound effects on our software freedom in Australia and elsewhere.

Definitely one not to miss! Please spread the word to people likely to be interested in this event and let us know.

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