US patent moves are 'profoundly bad' in leaked TPP treaty | The Verge

US patent moves are 'profoundly bad' in leaked TPP treaty | The Verge

... many have taken the leak as an opportunity to question why the documents were secret in the first place. While many of the revelations could be seen as embarrassing to the US or other nations, they're hardly out of keeping with similar provisions in proposed legislation. At the same time, keeping the documents secret has fueled doubts about the legitimacy of the process itself. "Any state signing a binding international trade agreement without a vote of informed representatives and an open text is not a democracy," said OpenITP coder Eleanor Saitta in response to the latest leak. "I don't say that as a rhetorical position. It's not. It's a statement about the basic definition of democracy."

Wikileaks Post

Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013. The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties and biological patents. Significantly, the released text includes the negotiation positions and disagreements between all 12 prospective member states.

In the words of WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange, “If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”

EFF Posting

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