Internet-killing TPP Agreement Leaks, And It Confirms Our Worst Fears

The secret and internet-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has leaked and WikiLeaks has published the final text of the TTP’s Intellectual Property Rights chapter. And it’s all we feared.

This final version confirms our worst fears that were related to a loss in the freedom of expression and cause a widespread effect on the internet services, medicines, our liberties, patents and publishers.

In our previous article, we have told why TPP is a danger to the internet. The idea behind the TPP is free trade – amongst the 12 member countries. The agreement has faced severe criticism in the past due to its harsh intellectual property laws.

This could result in the heavy penalties for the filesharing websites. According to the agreement, across all the 12 member nations, ISPs would be bound to act and “remove or disable access” as soon as they “become aware” of some court decision regarding copyright infringement. Let’s suppose, a court in member nation #1 says that a file infringes a copyright, the ISPs in the other 11 member nations too would be required to remove the content. Here it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t violate the local copyrights.

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Other major fear that has been just confirmed, is related to the health and medicine sector. TPP can cause an overall impact on the cost of medicines and their availability. By extending the intellectual property rights of branded medicines, the development of the cheaper versions of drugs would be delayed- and thus becoming a problem for the poorer people.

The 12 nations that are the part of TPP are: Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Australia, USA, Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei. And between them, they represent over 40 percent of the world economy.

“The text of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter confirms advocates’ warnings that this deal poses a grave threat to global freedom of expression and basic access to things like medicine and information,” said Evan Greer, campaign director for the digital rights group Fight for the Future. “The contents of the TPP’s IP chapter were bought and paid for by Hollywood and the pharmaceutical industry before the negotiations even began.”

It should be noted that despite a final agreement, the final text is still kept hidden behind the doors, till the Canadian election on October 19.

What are your views regarding the internet-killing TPP agreement? Tell us in the comments below.

Also read: How Much Does the Entire Internet Weigh?