60803813
submission
Glyn Moody writes:
The main claims about likely economic gains from concluding the US-EU trade agreement TAFTA/TTIP, billed as a "once-in-a-generation prize", are increasingly under attack. BEUC, representing 41 consumer organizations from 31 European countries, has written a letter to the EU Trade Commissioner responsible for the negotiations, Karel De Gucht, complaining about his "exaggeration of the effects of the TTIP", and "use of unsubstantiated figures regarding the job creation potential". In a blog post entitled "Why Is It So Acceptable to Lie to Promote Trade Deals?", Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, has even harsher words: "Implying that a deal that raises GDP by 0.4 or 0.5 percent 13 years out means 'job-creating opportunities for workers on both continents' is just dishonest. The increment to annual growth is on the order of 0.03 percentage points. Good luck finding that in the data." If the best-case outcome is just 0.03% extra growth per year, is TAFTA/TTIP worth the massive upheavals it will require to both US and EU regulatory systems to achieve that?
60240593
submission
Glyn Moody writes:
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), potentially the world's biggest trade agreement, has been negotiated behind closed doors for nearly a year now. Apart from what we learn from a few official releases — and an increasing number of leaks — we still don't really know what is being agreed in the name of 800 million people in the US and EU. When a peaceful anti-TTIP protest was held outside yet another closed-doors meeting in Belgium, the local police sent in the water cannons and arrested nearly 300 people in what seems an extreme over-reaction. Will TTIP turn into the next ACTA revolt?
46592217
submission
Glyn Moody writes:
The world's blind have been trying to obtain the right to access books in other formats like Braille for 30 years, but the publishers have been fighting hard to stop that happening, claiming that copyright would be harmed if exceptions were made. Last month, the MPAA joined in, seeking to weaken even further the text of a proposed UN treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities. Now it seems it's the turn of computer companies to attack the blind. A Brussels-based corporate lobby group known as Business Europe has sent a letter to the European Commission opposing the treaty. What's interesting is some of the well-known computer companies in the Business Europe's Corporate Advisory and Support Group: Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. So the question is: do they support Business Europe and its attempt to block copyright exceptions for the blind? If they don't, they need to speak up against the move; if they do, we will know how much weight to put on future claims that they are compassionate, caring organisations...
18267720
submission
Glyn Moody writes:
Vladimir Putin has signed an order calling for Russian federal authorities to move to GNU/Linux, and for the creation of "a single repository of free software used in the federal bodies of executive power". There have been a number of Russian projects to roll out free software, notably in the educational sector, but none so far has really taken off. With the backing of Putin, could this be the breakthrough free software has been waiting for?