Monday, March 21, 2016

Crony got to crony

How bad is the Trans Pacific Partnership - the monster trade deal negotiated in secret?  You could imagine, but you'd under estimate it:
Part of the trouble with the TPP is the remarkable lack of balance within the intellectual property chapter. For example, early drafts of the agreement that featured provisions emphasizing balance and the public domain were opposed by the U.S. and ultimately removed. The lack of balance is also evident in how new rights are treated as mandatory requirements, but user-focused provisions are typically just optional.
Of course.  Users haven't dropped boatloads of cash into the pockets of politicians.  Copyright owners have.
... extension of criminal penalties for rights management information violations,
Because it's too costly to sue people who infringe, and so instead they should be jailed.  Because campaign contributions, or something.
 Criminalization of trade secret law runs counter the established approach in most TPP countries and is the direct result of U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbying efforts.
Because campaign contributions.

This is precisely what you would expect to come out of a smoke filled room.  To look at this is to entirely understand the Trump phenomenon.

3 comments:

  1. I started following links and I think all the blood drained out of my face into my feet or something.

    I see "The Trouble with the TPP, Day1" and "The Trouble with the TPP, Day 10" in the links here, but when I go to the linked sites, I'm seeing numbers as large as Day 46!.

    This really demands an uberpost.


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  2. That stuff happens large and small. I know of one landlord association which tried to persuade the Lege to criminalize failing to pay rent.

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  3. Wait, Comrade Misfit, you mean it's not criminal to stiff the landlord on rent?

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