11.23.13
Gemini version available ♊︎TPP is Patent Expansionism (Exporting US Patent Law)
Summary: TPP helps the killing of people (whose access to patented drugs and generics will be impeded) and helps an inane class of patents become applicable in more countries
THE recently-leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) document helped show that the copyright cartel runs governments [1], not just in the US but also abroad [2]. This even affects how people use their phones [3]. Analysis continues to come [4], including a longish peep at the impact on patents.
In order to understand what TPP means in practical terms, watch how Apple extorts a Korean giant that promotes Linux/Android [1. 2]. Billions of dollars are at stake and it’s buyers that pay this money (to Apple, even if they never buy Apple). One company even rewrites the history of encryption in an attempt to extort businesses using patents. “Once-secret details of a mass-lawsuit operation are revealed in Texas courtroom,” says the author, who is one among several that address the problem. Remember that Apple actually copied a lot of companies but right now it rewrites the history of gadgets in order to extort money out of the real innovators.
What’s needed right now is acceptance that software patents are inadequate and that patents in general do nothing but serve large corporations like Apple. That’s what TPP is for. It’s protectionism for monopolies. We might return to covering patents in the future (running Tux Machines takes a lot of time), but the important point is, TPP has a lot to do with patents. TPP needs to be crushed. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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MPAA and RIAA Urge Government to Keep High Fines for Copyright Infringers
This summer the U.S. Government’s Internet Policy Task Force published a Green Paper signaling various copyright issues that need to be addressed. Among other things, the group proposed a “recalibration” of penalties for file-sharers, which currently reach $150,000 per shared file. The MPAA and RIAA, among others, have now responded to this suggestion, stating that the current punishments are proportional, and needed to deter others from file-sharing and related offenses.
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Kim Dotcom: the TPP ‘proves’ that Wall St and Hollywood own Obama
The secretive multinational trade agreement the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “proves” that Wall St and Hollywood own Obama, according to MegaUpload and Mega founder Kim Dotcom.
In part two of Wired.co.uk’s interview with the infamous entrepreneur, we talk about international copyright law, NSA surveillance, Hollywood’s “backward, outdated licensing model”, Barack Obama and Dotcom’s political ambitions.
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Jailbreak a phone, go to jail: Copyright law, the TPP way
Even more examples of ill-informed thinking lurk in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the SOPA/CISPA/PIPA redux
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Visualizing Negotiating Positions in the TPP IP Chapter
Last Thursday, Wikileaks released a draft text of the intellectual property (IP) chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The TPP is a free trade agreement currently been negotiated between 12 countries: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and Japan. Like many FTAs, the TPP has been negotiated in a secret, non-transparent fashion, with access to draft texts provided only to lobbyists and the like. Wikileak’s release of the IP chapter thus provides an important opportunity for academics, activists, and the public to examine what is being negotiated in their name.
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