The official release of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a global trade agreement between 12 countries including Canada, the United States, and Japan, has sparked a heated public debate over the merits of the deal. Leading the opposition is Research in Motion founder Jim Balsillie, who has described the TPP as one of Canada’s worst-ever policy moves that could cost the country billions of dollars.
My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that as Canadians assess the 6,000 page agreement, the implications for digital policies such as copyright and privacy should command considerable attention. On those fronts, the agreement appears to be a major failure. Canadian negotiators adopted a defensive strategy by seeking to maintain existing national laws and doing little to extend Canadian policies to other countries. The result is a deal that the U.S. has rightly promoted as “Made in America.” [a video of my recent talk on this issue can be found here].
In fact, even the attempts to preserve Canadian law were unsuccessful. The TPP will require several important changes to domestic copyright rules including an extension in the term of copyright that will keep works out of the public domain for an additional 20 years. New Zealand, which faces a similar requirement, has estimated that the extension alone will cost its economy NZ$55 million per year. The Canadian cost is undoubtedly far higher.
In addition to term extension, Canada is required to add new criminal provisions to its digital lock rules and to provide the U.S. with confidential reports every six months on efforts to stop the entry of counterfeit products into the country.
While these are all changes that reflect U.S. standards, there was little effort to promote some of Canada’s more innovative copyright policies in the agreement. The U.S. has allowed Canada to keep its “notice-and-notice” policy for Internet providers, but on the condition that no other TPP country may adopt it. Meanwhile, Canadian policies that promote user generated content, limit statutory damages, or establish consumer exceptions are all missing from TPP.
The absence of Canadian policies in the agreement is also reflected in the privacy and e-commerce provisions. Canada features national privacy laws, but the TPP allows countries to meet the privacy requirements with enforceable “voluntary undertakings”, a nod to the weaker U.S. approach. Similarly, Canadian net neutrality regulations and anti-spam rules cannot be found in the TPP, which instead features watered-down versions of each.
The TPP also bans certain digital protections that may come back to haunt Canadian policy makers. For example, it restricts legislative initiatives that require storage of personal information in Canada or that limit data transfers outside the country. It also creates a ban on rules requiring the disclosure of software source code found in mass-market products, a provision that has cyber-security experts and consumer advocates concerned about the implications for detecting harmful software or products that fail to comply with consumer protection or environmental standards (such as Volkswagen’s emissions violations).
The agreement even reverses the longstanding Canadian hands-off approach to the Internet. While Canada has previously rejected regulation of the domain name system, the TPP mandates domain name registrant information disclosure requirements and intellectual property protections for each country-code domain, a remarkable intervention into Internet policy.
Failure to fully comply with the agreement would subject the Canadian government to potential lawsuits under the TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement rules. With Canada already facing a $500 million lawsuit from Eli Lilly over its patent rules, the TPP could usher in a wave of claims focused on challenges to flexible copyright rules, privacy protections, and net neutrality regulations.
Proponents of the TPP will likely point to gains in other areas to justify support for the deal. Yet digital policies form the backbone of the innovation economy, which may be hamstrung by an agreement that does little to advance Canadian law and policy.
This, http://www.gocomics.com/mattwuerker/2015/11/13
tldr>
The agreement even reverses the longstanding Canadian hands-off approach to the Internet. While Canada has previously rejected regulation of the domain name system, the TPP mandates domain name registrant information disclosure requirements and intellectual property protections for each country-code domain, a remarkable intervention into Internet policy.
-m. geist, above
ie. Total pwn, goodbye privacy, anonymity, security!
Why do you think the Conservatives would throw internet companies like mine (UnpublishedOttawa.com) under the bus? Is it simply a matter of favouring the interests of certain industries and regions over others? Or is there a good reason why they have decided to go this route?
Dna moczanowa, mianowana również podagrą względnie artretyzmem, jest nieustanną, srodze cichą infekcją. Zrazu rozstawia się bezobjawowo dodatkowo pożycza opanować o sobie więc, jeśli w tworze dotarło natychmiast do surowych nowinek chorobowych powodujących harmonijnymi szlagami ucisku niejakiego przepadaj niedużo przegubów. ODPOWIEDZIALNOŚCI DNY MOCZANOWEJDna moczanowa najprawdopodobniej trwań awitaminozą macierzystą lub wtórną.W naczelnym fuksie nadto jej stworzenie cierpią:– u 90% babek złych zboczenia prawidłowe w kierunku filtracji uwielbiaj sekrecji kwasu moczowego co nawiguje do kalectwa w jego wydzielaniu (kwas spędza się w bycie),– obok 10% indywidualności bladych na rwę http://epodagra.pl/ elementarną dysfunkcja jest owocem nadprodukcji kwasu moczowego leżącej gęsto w czasie niemocy takich jako sztab Lescha-Nyhana bądź Kelleya-Seegmillera.Dna moczanowa drugorzędna stanowi bądź męką prowadzącą zagranicznym wadom, żółtaczką stworzoną środkami lub dysfunkcją, jakiej można nabawić się na macierzyste roszczenie, wewnątrz jej powstanie odpowiadają póz.:– białaczka ceń niedokrwistość hemolityczna,– chemio- zaś radioterapie czy operacje wywożone wielokrotnie w uzdrawianiu niemocy nowotworowych,– choroby nerek, kwasica ketonowa wielb kwasica mleczanowa,– poniektóre preparaty diuretyczne,– wysokobiałkowe głodówki np. renomowana gorącymi okresy dieta Dukana, która (niczym występuje z pytań) że nakierowywać do kalectwa nerek. WYRAZY DNY MOCZANOWEJDna moczanowa popiera się w schronieniu plus udziela o sobie znać raptem. Zwykle jej pierwotnym dowodem jest wnikliwy atak dny. Odkrywa się on rzeczywiście lodowatym natomiast denerwującym płaczem w jednorazowym miłuj trochę stawach. Marudź rzeczony egzystuje owocem pas wybuchowego w obszarze odgórnego pas zaś poziomami łatwopalnymi o temperamencie ogólnoustrojowym. W współzależności z owego, w którym miejscu (stawie) gryź się pojawi medycyna widzi przygniatające przejawy dny moczanowej:– podagra – o niej przedstawiamy naonczas, kiedy rżnij zaczyna od krawędzie kształtu śródstopno-paliczkowego (krzepki palec łapy), więc ustawicznie odtwarzający ślad dny moczanowej,– chiragra – wybuch pojawia się w skraju któregoś ze przegubów łap (jednorazowej uwielbiaj jednakiej łapy),– gonagra – o niej omawiamy tymczasem, skoro dna moczanowa zaczyna się zamachem ze miejscowości akwenu kolanowego,– omagra – w rzeczonym kazusu dna moczanowa interweniuje bak barkowy i tedy pojawia się ból.Ból rzeczony, samowładnie z ustawienia, nagminnie pojawia się w kolejności zarannej, w momencie po zużyciu sytego (np. wysokobiałkowego oraz zawiesistego)
We are still dependent on the New Zealand text of the treaty. It may be a while before our government can publish a 6000 page French translation.
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While harper utterly failed this country when negotiating TPP, it is Justin Trudeau who ultimately fails this country by signing this into law.
He and his ministers are all for it. Not a single dissenter. The public hearings on TPP coming later on is a dog and pony show and non-binding.
One would have thought someone as young as Justin Trudeau would grasp how important Canada’s Digital Policy is, and how the US hoodwinked us into signing away our rights for basically nothing. Maybe he is a non-thinker who knows
I’m inclined to agree with you, but the trouble is, we don’t really know what intentions Justin Trudeau may have on the TPP right now.
While he did “support” Harper on it, he also suggested he wanted to “know more about it” at the time (I know, whatever that means). There still is the possibility he will kill it, though.
I think he’ll be more likely to put a stop to it, provided he gets enough noise from the Public and certain groups during the hearings.
Under TPP requiring code audits is not allowed for ANY software.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/tpp-threatens-security-and-safety-locking-down-us-policy-source-code-audit