TPP Defenders Take To The Internet To Deliver Official Talking Points; Inadvertently Confirm Opponents' Worst Fears
from the TPP-doesn't-do-anything-opponents-claim-it-does,-except-for-all-this dept
The leaked TPP draft, pried loose from the "open and transparent" grip of the USTR, is generating plenty of commentary all over the web. After getting a good look inside, it's little wonder the USTR felt more comfortable trying to push this through under the cover of darkness.
As the criticism of the push for IP maximalism mounts, the treaty's defenders have leapt into the fray, hoping to assure everyone who wasn't previously aware of the treaty's contents (which is pretty much everyone) that there's nothing to see here and please move along.
Mike recently broke down the ridiculous claims and posturing of the USTR's "talking points." Amanda Wilson Denton, counsel to the IIPA (International Intellectual Property Alliance) has showed up right on cue to "set the record straight" on the leaked TPP draft. Let's see how well she followed the talking points. (Talking points in bold.)
The Draft Is Already OutdatedSure, it's only a "snapshot." But unless everything's changed since then, it's a very representative snapshot of the involved countries' stances on IP issues. Just because the work is "ongoing" doesn't mean its improving.
The only thing that can certainly be said about this draft is that it does not reflect the current state of the negotiations...
If it is what it purports to be, the draft reveals a snapshot in time of the ongoing work of the participating countries to hammer out an agreement in Intellectual Property Rights…
What It Would Not Require: Changes to U.S. IP LawSo, if you love current US IP law (and wish it would be expanded), you'll love the TPP. If you don't, well… get used to it. The US is running your IP show now, foreigners.
While it is impossible to say right now what a TPP IP chapter would do, experience provides an answer for what it would not do -- since the U.S. began negotiating FTAs again in 2000, no FTA has required a change to U.S. intellectual property law.
The U.S. proposals mirror the current duration of copyright in U.S. law. They track the provisions already agreed in previous FTAs regarding the technologies that rights holders use to control access to their works and limitations on liability to benefit ISPs, including the FTA agreed between the United States and Korea that entered into force in 2012…
In sum, the putative U.S. positions revealed in the leaked text would be consistent with U.S. law and prior free trade agreements approved by Congress, and most importantly would help to achieve better copyright protection among our trading partners…
While we understand that there are parties that don't like present U.S. law and policy, this leaked text demonstrates a fealty to existing U.S. law, and not an abandonment thereof.
Denton does admit there is one change to existing US law, something only a maximalist would be happy to see -- a provision that would allow rights holders to pursue criminal charges against those who "aid and abet" copyright infringement. Great news! That means you no longer have to actually infringe to be held criminally accountable. All you have to do is be adjacent to it.
The Only Real “News” – Many Bogus Claims Are Now Verifiably False.Comparisons to SOPA are valid because the leaks show the US is pushing a maximalist hard line, one that goes much further than most other countries are willing to go (Australia being the notable exception).
The only real “news” in the leaked text is that various claims (e.g., TPP endangers Internet freedom, TPP is SOPA) are now provably false.
[T]he issue that generated controversy surrounding SOPA—website blocking through DNS blocking—is entirely absent from the text as recently noted by Ambassador Froman. Froman specifically raised the issue of “blocking rogue Internet sites from accessing the Internet from the United States” in a recent interview published in the November 18, 2013 issue of Washington Trade Daily. He stated unequivocally: “There is nothing in the Trans Pacific Partnership, zero, that has anything to do with that...”
Any comparison to SOPA/PIPA is completely inappropriate and inaccurate.
SOPA was a maximalist's dream. Since a majority of Americans are not maximalists, the bill was tough to sell. The USTR knows this, which is why every aspect of these negotiations has been as secretive as possible. Simply stating the TPP is not SOPA because it isn't exactly the same is a weak dodge. It has the same intent. The TPP will harm internet freedom the same way SOPA would have. Secondary liability will now be a criminal act, as Denton points out in her defense of the agreement.
And as for Ambassador Froman's claim that the TPP doesn't provide for the blocking of "rogue sites," former USTR employee and current analyst for the ITIF (SOPA's "intellectual backer") Michelle Wein actually points out that it does in her op-ed defending the proposal.
In addition, the text does not require ISPs to block access, but instead asks that they take reasonable steps: "Court-ordered relief to compel or restrain certain actions shall be limited to terminating specified accounts, or to taking reasonable steps to block access to a specific, non-domestic online location. [emphasis added]" Essentially, this means that courts cannot make ISPs financially liable for copyright infringement by their users, but can ask them to take steps to block access.When the government starts "asking" ISPs to "take reasonable steps" (what does that even mean?) to block sites, it's not a request. It's a very forceful suggestion with potential legal implications, as most court ORDERS are. ISPs may not be liable for customers' infringement, but they can certainly be held liable for not "taking reasonable steps" to block access. "Reasonable" is in the eye of the beholder, and what that means for ISPs is that courts will be making this call after they've already issued an order "asking" them to block sites.
What's being witnessed here is the US attempting to make the world beholden to its rights holders. The TPP makes a mockery the last word in its title. There's no "partnership" here. Just a country misusing its stature and economic power to rewrite international IP laws in servitude of a few select industries.
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Filed Under: copyright, defenders, patents, talking points, tpp
Companies: iipa
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Doing something
What doesn't exist is a silver bullet, or some magic wand that will improve things instantly. Give up that dream. How deep change really happens, how it has always happened, is through a long-haul effort by many different types of people pushing from many different directions. What we learn in the history books, that there is always one single event that changes everything overnight, is a lie. The truth is that there is hope, but that hope isn't resting on something neat, clean, or quick. it rests on us, each of us, individually. It rests on you.
So here's what you do -- you do everything you can to push for the change you want. Even the stuff that might seem pointless.
Do you avoid voting? You're a fool. Voting may not, by itself, change anything -- but it is one more piece of kindling on the bonfire.
Do you write letters to your representatives and you newspaper? You absolutely should. Another piece of kindling.
Do you give money, even $5 here and there, to public interest lobbyist groups that are pushing for an even vaguely similar agenda? Kindling.
Do you attend demonstrations? Kindling.
Do you participate in political discussions with your neighbors, and actually say what you believe? Kindling.
Do you write long-winded comments on blog sites in an attempt to get people to do something, anything, no matter how small, to push to bring about the type of world they want to live in? Yes, kindling.
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There are no "political" solutions to stopping TPP and other "agreements" like it. At this point, we can only do our best to get in the way.
But remember, "getting in the way" worked back in the early part of the 20th century. We saw the rise of organized labor and the growing influence of the middle class, and the entire New Deal because elites were worried about the Great Unwashed showing up on their front lawns and getting in the way.
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Just U.S.?
Although I agree the U.S. negotiating team seems to be taking the lead (at least among the nation state (as opposed to corporate representative) parties) at cynically screwing over 99% of humans for the benefit of an elite class of "rights holders", I question whether those rights holders are primarily U.S.. Most IP is held by corporations, and corporations don't respect country anymore.
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Re: Just U.S.?
According to the Duties on these corporations because of Laws written by countries like the U.S. Their only duty and concern is Share-Holder return, no matter where that shareholder lives.
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What Amanda Denton didn't say..."and we intend to change that."
Fuck her and the horse she rode in on.
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the really scary thing is, it gives control of the internet and therefore the world into the hands of the USA! i cant think of anything worse! nothing will be allowed unless it benefits a US industry and any changes to the terms and conditions will be totally forbidden, unless agreed by the USA, regardless of who else wants the changes. the deaths that will come from this because no country will be permitted to use drugs made 'in house', being forced to purchase, at drastically inflated prices, direct from only the USA. in other words, world domination will be handed to the USA without them having to fire a shot, drop a bomb or invade a country with troops that have nothing on their minds but the 'removal' of as many of the enemy as possible! what a world we have coming, because those that will be voting on this are only concerned with filling up their personal bank accounts and not in the least worried about doing the job they were elected to do, worried about their country or their people or what the hell is gonna happen in the future!!
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"What's being witnessed here is the US attempting to make the world beholden to its rights holders."
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Re: "What's being witnessed here is the US attempting to make the world beholden to its rights holders."
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You mean like a "wheelman" waiting outside a bank while his co-conspirators are inside brandishing guns and robbing it?
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This is how the Great Firewall of China gets erected in democratic societies.... Built to protect those inside from harm, but in the end, it's just a prison.
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Secrecy, surveilance and internet control
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US Army ignores copyright, fails to pay millions for software
Hypo crisy in action!
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The US Is Very Worried About 'Copyright'?
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