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[Zombie James]

This is a multi-national "free trade" agreement being worked in secret by the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. Canada and Mexico have recently joined. Anything in this agreement would supersede domestic laws and/or force member nations to change their laws to conform. Some of these laws include:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-...ver_Intellectual_Property_.28IP.29_provisions

• Include a number of features that would lock-in as a global norm many controversial features of U.S. law, such as endless copyright terms.
• Create new global norms that are contrary to U.S. legal traditions, such as those proposed to damages for infringement, the enforcement of patents against surgeons and other medical professional, rules concerning patents on biologic medicines etc.
• Undermine many proposed reforms of the patent and copyright system, such as, for example, proposed legislation to increase access to orphaned copyrighted works by limiting damages for infringement, or statutory exclusions of "non-industrial" patents such as those issued for business methods.
• Would eliminate any possibility of parallel trade in copyrighted books, journals, sheet music, sound recordings, computer programs, and audio and visual works.
• Requires criminal enforcement for technological measures beyond WIPO Internet Treaties, even when there is not copyright infringement, impose a legal regime of ISP liability beyond the DMCA standards.
• Requires legal incentives for service providers to cooperate with copyright owners in deterring the unauthorized storage and transmission of copyrighted materials.
• Requires identifying internet users for any ISP, going beyond U.S. case law, includes the text of the controversial US/KOREA side letter on shutting down web sites.
• Requires adopting compensation for infringement without actual damages.
• For copyright and trademark, criminal punishment would apply even to non-for-profit infringement.

And there's more:

The leaked text provides stark warnings about the dangers of “trade” negotiations occurring without press, public or policymaker oversight. It reveals that negotiators already have agreed to many radical terms granting expansive new rights and privileges for foreign investors and their private corporate enforcement through extra-judicial “investor-state” tribunals.

Although TPP has been branded as a “trade” agreement, the leaked text shows that TPP would limit how signatory countries may regulate foreign firms operating within their boundaries, with requirements to provide them greater rights than domestic firms. The leaked text reveals a two-track legal system, with foreign firms empowered to skirt domestic courts and laws to directly sue TPP governments in foreign tribunals. There they can demand compensation for domestic financial, health, environmental, land use laws and other laws they claim undermine their new TPP privileges.

The leak also reveals that all countries involved in TPP talks – except Australia – have agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of such foreign tribunals, which would be empowered to order payment of unlimited government Treasury funds to foreign investors over TPP claims.

• The deal forbids participating nations to apply financial transaction taxes or capital controls.
• Health and land use policies, government procurement decisions, regulatory permits, intellectual property rights and regulation of financial instruments such as derivatives would all be subjects open for corporations to go to the international tribunals and subvert national rules.
• “The foreign tribunals would be staffed by private sector lawyers who rotate between acting as ‘judges’ and representing corporations suing governments, posing major conflicts of interest.”
• Investors have the right to claim damages from governments based on their own expectations of how they should be treated, in terms of regulations or permitting.
• “U.S. negotiators alone are pushing for foreign investors to have greater rights than domestic investors with respect to disputes relating to procurement contracts with the signatory governments, contracts for natural resource concessions on land controlled by the national government, and contracts to operate utilities.”

Clearly this needs to be stopped and people need to be made aware of it. There's a global petition people can sign at http://stopthetrap.net/ (it'll automatically send it to the leaders of whichever your home country is). This was set up by the same group that helped save independent Canadian ISPs from crippling fees and ridiculous bandwidth caps. Help get the word out, GAF.

 

[Sanky Panky]

I was going to post a thread, but this OP did a good job. It is a shame that this got no attention in the past. Here is more info from HuffPo around that time:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/obama-trade-document-leak_n_1592593.html

What has happened since last year?

Just days ago Obama has pushed to "Fast Track" this unseen trade agreement, so that the contents are not released, and don't fall under scrutiny of the American people. Congress won't be able to vote on the contents or review it.

This article is from earlier in the year talking about the "Fast Track" or TPA.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee...rtnership-fast-track-authority_b_3354114.html

Despite the Obama administration's well-known penchant for secrecy, enough information has leaked out of its closed-door negotiations on the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement (FTA) to reveal there is much to oppose about the Mother of all Trade Agreements.

Never meant to be a vehicle for economic equality or noble ideals, here are two brief examples of how 600 participating corporations expect to amass unprecedented power to own the world: the TPP would give companies the right to circumvent the judicial process as it challenges federal and state regulations and "investor states" would allow corporations to sue a host government with a panel of private attorneys to act as judges.

As proposed, the TPA would eliminate Congress' Constitutional responsibility as defined in Article I, Section 8 to "regulate commerce with foreign nations." There is nothing ambiguous about Constitutional intent in 1789 -- having just concluded a revolutionary war against an imperial autocrat with trade disputes a central issue, separation of powers and 'checks and balance' were a clear decision by the country's founders to prevent a strong executive from usurping power from the legislative branch -- and that included foreign trade.

We can chalk it up to good ol' corporate corruption in Washington, but raising awareness about this can go a long way. This won't get the coverage it deserves, but at least we can all help to spread the word.