One of the largest trade agreements in history was recently finished, after five years of negotiations, kept hidden for the most part from the public eye. It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and includes the United States, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia and several other countries that border the Pacific Ocean. It has been controversial from the start, since there has been virtually no input from the legislative houses of the various countries, or from academics, but has included commercial interests in the negotiations.
Wikileaks has managed to obtain what they call a copy of the final agreement, but it only shows the intellectual property section of the TPP, which includes details regarding medicines, internet services and some patents. We here at MyCE are most interested in the internet and copyright provisions, which appear to extend US law across the Pacific and add some new, disturbing twists. Under the agreement, it appears that internet service providers could be forced to block websites that host content without permission of the copyright owners, and it also provides for blocking websites that merely have links to copyright protected material. A court case won in one country against such a site could be applied to all of the ISP's in all of the countries that sign the agreement.
Copyright has been extended to the life of the copyright holder, plus 70 years, to match the copyright provisions of the United States. Some countries will be allowed to step up to this gradually, including New Zealand, which will have eight years to add to the overall length of copyright, but others, like Canada, will be changing their laws immediately upon signing the agreement.
Another disturbing provision is the addition of criminal charges for copyright violations. This has already been in place for some of the countries, including the US in certain cases, but it will now be extended to all the countries involved in the TPP. Removal of digital locks or tampering with "rights management information" is also prohibited, and possibly subject to criminal charges.
You can find a copy of the TPP intellectual property chapter at Wikileaks.
