The Closed-Door Media Talks That Could End the Open Internet (TPP) [View all]

[Catherina]

The Closed-Door Media Talks That Could End the Open Internet
Posted: 07/20/2013 7:52 am

Big Media lobbyists and unelected bureaucrats are holding closed-door meetings in Malaysia this week, as they continue secret talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a highly secretive and extreme trade deal being negotiated by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the United States, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Reports from Malaysia indicate that the TPP talks are stalled over five key issues -- including a key chapter on copyright and Intellectual Property rights that would censor and criminalize Internet use. This is not good news for Big Media lobbyists, who are demanding the TPP include extreme new copyright rules that could end the open Internet as we know it. Big Media is spending a fortune on lobbying as they try to shore up an old-fashioned, high-cost command and control media business model that no longer makes sense in the Internet age.

TPP organizers are going to incredible lengths to lock citizens out of these negotiations -- when talks recently took place in Vancouver, Canada's trade ministry instituted what amounted to a media blackout, even refusing to tell journalists in which part of town the talks were taking place. TPP documents are top secret -- unless you're one of just 600 big industry lobbyists invited to take part.

Why all this secrecy? Well, because what's on the negotiating table is so unpopular that it would never pass with the whole world watching. We know from leaked documents that the TPP contains extreme proposals on copyright that would never pass muster with the public. According to the drafts Big Media's extreme proposals would criminalize your online activity, invade your privacy, and cost you money.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation is also sounding the alarm, noting that Big Media's proposals mean that: "normal online activities could lead you to be cut off from the Internet, have your computer seized, be fined up to $150,000, or even land you in prison."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-christopher-/tpp-negotiations_b_3625078.html

http://ourfairdeal.org/ (Mostly internet related issues)

https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp (Mostly Intellectual Property)

For Labor-issues:
Teamsters
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO

Secret TPP Deal Would Void Democracy
July 08, 2013 / Jane Slaughter

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Congress will soon debate whether to “fast-track” a trade deal that would make job-killers like NAFTA look puny. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would give corporations the right to sue national governments if they passed any law, regulation, or court ruling interfering with a corporation’s “expected future profits.”

They could also sue over local or state laws they didn’t like. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the world’s economy.

Existing laws and regulations on food safety, environmental protection, drug prices, local contracting, and internet freedom would all be up for challenge. And the decision-makers on such suits would not be local judges and juries; they’d be affiliated with the World Bank, an institution dedicated to corporate interests.

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Most unions, however, have been slow to get on board—even though the TPP would jeopardize, according to the AFL-CIO, millions of jobs. The Teamsters and Communications Workers have been the most active.

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http://www.labornotes.org/2013/07/secret-tpp-deal-would-void-democracy

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For general, well-rounded information:
http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/trade-policies/tpp-potential-trade-policy-problems/
http://www.tpp2012.com/
TPP THREATS

Corporations Grab Taxpayer $$ Attacking U.S. Laws in Foreign Tribunals

Read how foreign corporations would be empowered to attack U.S. health, land use, environmental, and other laws before tribunals of three corporate lawyers operating under World Bank or UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for policies they think undermine their expected future profits. (Already $350 million has been paid to corporations under NAFTA’s version of this crazy system.)

Bye Bye American Jobs & Buy America

Special investor protections take away the risk of offshoring jobs to low-wage countries and in fact incentivize offshoring by providing special benefits for companies that leave. Plus, TPP would impose limits on how our elected officials can use tax dollars – banning Buy America or Buy Local preferences when government buy goods and services.

Undermining Food Safety

TPP would require us to import food that does not meet U.S. safety standards. It would limit food labeling.

Son of SOPA: Curtailing Internet Freedom

Thought SOPA was bad? Read how TPP would require internet service providers to "police" user-activity and treat individual violators as large-scale for-profit violators. Plus, TPP would stifle innovation.

Financial Deregulation: Banksters' Delight

TPP would rollback reregulation of Wall Street. It would prohibit bans on risky financial services and undermine "too big to fail" regulations.

More Expansive Medicines, Threats to Public Health

Disgustingly, U.S. negotiators at TPP are pushing the agenda of Big PhaRMA – longer monopoly control on drugs for the big firms and higher prices for us. These proposals would mean millions in developing countries are cut off from life-saving medicines and higher prices for those of us in rich countries.

http://www.tpp2012.com/