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WikiLeaks has chimed in on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
On Wednesday it published a leaked proposal chapter of the TPP that shows how the wide-ranging
international economic agreement — whose member countries account for 40 percent of
the world's GDP — could put a damper on innovation and Internet freedoms.
"The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP
due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties
and biological patents."
"Those concerns are only heightened by the high level of secrecy surrounding the TPP
trade negotiations, where even members of congress have complained they're being shut
out of the process by more powerful transnational corporations." (Via RT)
Knowledge Ecology International explains: "The TPP text shrinks the space for exceptions
in all types of intellectual property rights. The proposed text is bad for access to knowledge,
bad for access to medicine, and profoundly bad for innovation."
In addition to patenting surgical procedures and making low-cost pharmaceuticals more difficult
to obtain, critics worry the TPP's wording promotes corporations and their interests
over individual online freedoms.
The TPP would extend media copyright protection terms, which could benefit rightsholders more
than the originating artists. It would prohibit temporary copies of media on the Internet,
which would hobble everything from web browsing to streaming media; and would require ISPs
in participating countries to police users for copyright infringement and enact a three
strikes rule. (Via International Business Times)
An analyst tells Democracy Now it all bears a worrying resemblance to the SOPA and ACTA
legislation that sparked Internet backlash in 2011 and 2012.
"Think about all the things that would be really hard to get into effect as a corporation
in public, a lot of them rejected here and in the other 11 countries, and that is what's
bundled into the TPP."
Luckily for the Internet, Wikileaks' publication comes as members of Congress put the brakes
on what might have been a fast-track approval of the latest changes to the TPP.
Democrats and republicans alike are calling for greater Congressional consultation when
it comes to the U.S.' trade agreements. (Via The New York Times)
The TPP is intended to lower trade barriers with other Pacific countries before the end
of the year. The latest round of talks on the TPP is scheduled for November 19 in Salt
Lake City.