Submission + - Trans Pacific Partnership Threatens Freedom Online
pafein writes: "Hot on the heels of the SOPA blackout and ACTA protests in Europe comes reports about a new threat to online freedom, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement or TPP. A trade agreement covering a dozen Asian, North & South American countries, TPP is being negotiated this week in a Hollywood hotel. It contains many of the most troubling provisions of other online anti-piracy bills: prohibitions on circumventing digital locks, three strikes rules, domain seizures, criminal penalties for peer-to-peer filesharing, as well as new ones, including treating temporary copies as copyright infringement, a proposal experts called 'crazy'. Offline, worries have been raised that TPP threatens access to generic drugs in developing countries and enables corporations to sue governments over health, environmental and other laws.
The treaty is characterized by a lack of transparency: the proposed text is only known by leaks while documents from negotiations would be secret for four years after adoption. The dates and locations of negotations themselves are secret: NGOs who tried to hold an event in the hotel were thrown out by the US Trade Representative; meanwhile, negotiators went on an MPAA sponsored tour of a movie studio. TPP has already attracted the attention of L.A.'s Occupy movement; concerned Netizens are encouraged to contact the USTR and their senator."
The treaty is characterized by a lack of transparency: the proposed text is only known by leaks while documents from negotiations would be secret for four years after adoption. The dates and locations of negotations themselves are secret: NGOs who tried to hold an event in the hotel were thrown out by the US Trade Representative; meanwhile, negotiators went on an MPAA sponsored tour of a movie studio. TPP has already attracted the attention of L.A.'s Occupy movement; concerned Netizens are encouraged to contact the USTR and their senator."
