Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Threat to Copyright Laws

Monday 14 May 2012 @ 11.12 a.m. | IP & Media

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DEFAT):

"The government’s highest regional trade negotiation priority is the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). This agreement will build on the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (P4) between Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, which entered into force in 2006." 

Yet the TPP is also seen by many as a surrender of control over important areas of copyright and other intellectual property laws by Australia and other participating nations to the US.

Of the latest round of talks to finalise the TPP Agreement in Dallas, Texas, Sam Varghese writying for ITWire says:

"Australia's copyright policy will be decided by the final form of this agreement - which will, in turn, be decided by the Americans who are driving the talks. The eight other countries - Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Peru, Malaysia, Chile, Brunei and Singapore - are all pawns in the game."

Examples of concessions and things America is said to be seeking via the  TPP Agreement are:

  • patents are to last longer 

  • stricter penalties for copyright violators 

  • higher prices for pharmaceuticals 

  • disputes which international (therefore mainly American) companies have with a given country to be decided by a court in the USA and not in the country in question.

An examples of how Australia is claimd to be complying with US objectives are said to be the proposed reforms allowing retention of data collected from web histories of connected devices for up to two years.

It is interesting to see such developments go virtually unmentioned in the main stream media at the same time as our own courts make radical and important pronouncemnets relating to copyright like the recent iiNet Cases decided by the High Court.

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