WikiLeaks has been promising a potential bombshell today, and
now it's here, a recent draft chapter from the already much-criticized Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty (involves nations all the way from U.S. and Peru to Australia and Japan). The Verge summarizes, as it digs deeper into the doc:
The leaked chapter focuses on
intellectual property rights, and is part of a broader agreement called
the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) that has been in the works
for several years now between the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and
several other countries. Though the draft is being written in secret,
it's rumored to be moving toward a fast track through Congress. Some
details of the agreement have been leaked in the past, but today's come
from a quite recent draft, dated August 30th, 2013 — it's also the only
one to detail which countries are in support of which proposals.
The Sydney Morning Herald received an early look at the leaked draft,
and notes that it focuses on the United States' federal and corporate
interests, while largely ignoring the rights and interests of consumers.
"One could see the TPP as a Christmas wish-list for major corporations,
and the copyright parts of the text support such a view," Matthew
Rimmer, an expert in intellectual property law, tells the
Herald.
"Hollywood, the music industry, big IT companies such as Microsoft and
the pharmaceutical sector would all be very happy with this."
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