Trans-Pacific-Partnership Kept Secret(IMPORTANT)

The internet may have been very quick to sit on its laurels after the successful opposition to SOPA. First there was the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, a highly restrictive, multi-national law that looked a lot like SOPA and covered everything from music downloads to crops. That bill saw much of the same opposition that SOPA, and eventually saw some its most controversial provisions watered down in the final draft.

But there doesn??????t seem to be any end: now, the fight over piracy on the internet moves East. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is the newest legislation being fought over in the increasingly heated war for the internet. It??????s being negotiated in nine-country talks that include the U.S., Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Peru, Brunei, New Zealand and Singapore.

Critics are once again pointing out the intellectual property provisions, claiming that they could be the most restrictive to have been proposed yet. And like ACTA, critics are decrying TPP for being negotiated behind closed doors ?????? on Wednesday, negotiators met in a Hollywood restaurant veiled in secrecy. At Ars Technica, Nate Anderson writes about American University Professor Sean Flynn, who claims that a hotel near the negotiations had been explicitly asked not to allow public interest groups to hold meetings on the day of the negotiations.

He writes:

Last year, versions of the TPP??????s US-written IP chapter leaked; its provisions went well beyond even ACTA, which was already the new high-water mark for IP enforcement. Where do things stand now? Are the other TPP countries on board with the US approach? Who knows! It??????s all secret.

While ACTA at least claimed not to exceed US law, Flynn and other professors allege that the leaked TPP IP chapter does go beyond what??????s in US law, doing things like extending copyright protection even to temporary ??????buffer?????? copies so crucial to digital devices.

Some of the strongest opposition is coalescing around the IP provisions, but the TPP us a broad agreement that will stretch into all aspects of international trade ?????? and groups have already raised their concerns about some other industries. In Tokyo, hundreds of Japanese citizens protested in Tokyo, saying that cheap Us imports could hamstring Japan??????s already weak agricultural sector, and a number of U.S. congresspeople have also expressed deep concerns over what effect the agreement might have on generic brands of prescription drugs.

What??????s becoming clear is that Intellectual Property provisions are becoming a part of the basic negotiations of international trade, and neither lawmakers nor free-internet advocates are going to let this one drop. TPP may be the battleground now, but this question isn??????t going to go away.

Earlier today, file-sharing website The Pirate Bay called 2012 ??????The Year of the Storm,?????? referring to the growing tension between internet activists and lawmakers. It??????s started off hot, with the shutdown of Megaupload and the fight over SOPA, and it doesn??????t seem like it??????s going to calm down.

As always i will continue to update[:(!]

On a side note they arrested Kim Dotcom. Yes that his real name lol. And they took down mega-upload

Most people do not know about this one yet there isnt even a petition up yet, and Anonymous hasn't covered this yet on youtube. just wanted to let you guys know early. ACTA is probably going to die out now because of it losing support and ISPS protesting against it. but this has happened two times already idk if the third will be stopped.


edit; good news is that this one already has plenty of opposition from several countries

Originally posted by RoadRunner88

On a side note they arrested Kim Dotcom. Yes that his real name lol. And they took down mega-upload

This is old(er) news, I get why they took it down though.

I also understand all the piracy acts but I think they should just pick one and stick with it.

The problem with all of these laws is not that they try to stop piracy - I agree that piracy is an issue that needs attention - but how they do it. The media corporations need to realize that killing everything that may possibly be piracy isn't how to do it. It's sort of a similar argument as the prohibition in the 20s. Banning something won't stop it. They need to offer an alternative to piracy - selling reasonably priced goods with reasonable restrictions (or none...that would be nice...) on an easy-to-access network. The problem with piracy nowadays is that anyone can google "song_title.mp3" and get hundreds of links to pirated copies and 2 links to a legal, purchasable copy. And when that purchasable copy has outrageous restrictions like, "You can't play this on any device that's not yours, and if you try to play it on said device, your device will blow up because it's criminal to play it on that device; therefore the device itself is criminal so we won't let you keep your device," you're far less likely to buy it than you are to simply download an unrestricted version for free. I personally don't pirate anything: I pay for all of my media. However, I know people that do pirate simply because of the dumb restrictions that are on the buyable ones. If there were no DRM, and people knew that, I believe that piracy would decline almost overnight. Not disappear, mind you, but decline. That's my two cents, and love government.

This is getting old...

this will probably BLOW OVER or get Watered Down just like ACTA.
in my opinion.

Originally posted by boneplaya

It's sort of a similar argument as the prohibition in the 20s.

+1

"Ok, so, how do we stop piracy?"
"ooh, I know! Let's nuke the internet!"

ok here is some news on TPP http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/ ... DB20120203

And here is some news on ACTA http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... hacked.ars