Lawless President’s Secret Treaty Makes US Citizens Into Somali Pirates

November 10, 2013

By Sara Noble

 
You have to pass the TPP treaty to know what’s in it.
Our lawless administration is negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty in secret and what we know so far is only what has been leaked. The information being leaked seems very alarming.
It appears, that the TPP will so limit our freedoms that US citizens could conceivably be treated like Somali pirates by other nation signers.
If that doesn’t make your hairs stand on end, nothing will! It could prove to be a serious attack on free speech and it will likely limit the free flow of ideas and restrict creativity.
WaPo put out a piece on November 8 which states that the treaty could have significant effects on domestic law. It requires signers of this ‘free trade treaty’ to make SIGNIFICANT changes to copyright law and enforcement measures, which are already restrictive.
Be afraid, because right now, you already don’t have the right to copy anything in the media if they decide you don’t. Under TPP, you could be treated like a Somali pirate for copying a video of music, or something from a TV show, almost anything. Even if you think its fair use, forget it, you can be sued and you could be sued by someone in Malaysia. Can you afford to go to court with the big guns?
We are also finding out that another special interest group – pharmaceuticals – is looking to use TPP to limit our access to generic drugs.
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) notes the NY Times editorial board (an arm of the Obama Administration) “‘has endorsed the secret TPP treaty while acknowledging that some are “worried about provisions on intellectual property that could restrict the availability of generic medicines and grant longer copyright protections to big media companies,” it nevertheless argues that a “good deal” would “not only help individual countries but set an example for global trade talks.’”
Even more bizarre, The Office of the United States Trade Representative has solicited comments about the treaty on its website, without providing any details.
The Sentinel has already written extensively about the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty and the little that has been leaked out will benefit the super wealthy and hurt the common man. What a shocker!
Odd provisions are being put into the treaty by various stakeholders that are normally not in a trade treaty. One of these provisions concerns copyright infringement.
Copyright infringement of intellectual property has its own chapter in the TPP agreement according to leaks last June. There is one coalition that wants to employ copyright cops and treat infringers like pirates as in Somalian pirates. Joe Blogger in Oshkosh could conceivably find himself being tried by international courts.
TPP appears to be a payoff to music producers and movie stars and now it is possibly a payoff to Big Pharma.
It is also another case of the lawless Mr. Obama agreeing to change US law to suit international law and put us under the thumb of foreign influences.
President Obama declared his commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership during his State of the Union speech earlier this year.
TPP is a trade agreement of goods and services. The agreement would link Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada into a “free trade” zone similar to that of NAFTA.
This treaty is NAFTA on speed. Many on the left, including the unions, are opposed to TPP, partly because these trade agreements often send more jobs overseas and reduce trade as is the case of our agreement with Korea.
Unions have a secondary problem with TPP in that it appears to give corporations more power over labor rules and agreements.
It is not only the left who should be concerned, however, this treaty could negatively impact our Constitution and our Internet.
President Obama made it clear that he supports it and while Congress has to approve it, the treaty will likely be “fast tracked.”
President Obama’s statement during the SOTU:

“Even as we protect our people, we should remember that today’s world presents not only dangers, but opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

Every time one of these agreements is enacted, there are more countries that can challenge our laws. This treaty might allow foreign corporations within the U.S. to appeal American domestic rulings to an international tribunal which would in turn have the power to overrule our laws and impose sanctions on the U.S.
What should concern people more is the secrecy involved. The only people allowed to see the draft are stakeholders which includes hundreds of corporations and labor unions such as the AFL-CIO. The public and Congress cannot see the draft despite the fact that we are all stakeholders in the end.

THIS IS A QUICK RUNDOWN OF THE 2011 LEAK OF WHAT’S IN TPP:
A paper leaked on to the Internet and put forth by special business interests, possibly Pharmaceuticals, the Motion Picture Industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Manufacturers of America, has put forth the following issues to be urgently addressed in their vision of the chapter on intellectual property in TPP -

• Temporary copies to be placed under copyright protection. Can you imagine what this will do to ingenuity and furtherance of knowledge? They are basically saying that any time you temporarily copy something to read it or replay it, you will be violating copyright law and they want you to pay rent to do it. The Internet would soon become very expensive and out of the realm of the average user’s ability to afford it.

• Circumvention of digital locks will be prohibited, which helps prevent copyright infringement but it also prevents lawful uses.

• Copyright books are the author’s lifetime plus 70 years and copyright IP terms are the life of the author plus 50 years, but this group wants it to be longer. This will greatly limit creativity. Think of all the rewrites of Sleeping Beauty and the Wizard of Oz that would never have happened. In time, interest wanes because it’s interest was based in a historical context. That means most of these good ideas will no longer be used to develop new ideas.

• Statutory damages will be extended so they will mimic the corrupt U.S. statutory damages which have led to insanely excessive damage awards. This will stifle creative innovation because people will fear lawsuits. Read more: Public Knowledge and New Zealand

Using interviews from TV news programs, including music in a written work, and developing ideas from other’s ideas are somewhat protected by Fair Use in the United States but this treaty will possibly eliminate that.

FAIR USE IN AMERICA [via youtube]
In many countries, certain uses of copyright-protected works do not infringe the copyright owner’s rights. For example, in the United States, copyright rights are limited by the doctrine of “fair use,” under which certain uses of copyrighted material for criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research may be considered fair. U.S. judges determine whether a fair use defense is valid according to four factors, which we’ve listed below for educational purposes. In some other countries, there is a similar concept called “fair dealing” that may be applied differently.
Remember, it is your responsibility to understand the relevant law and whether it protects the use you have in mind. If you plan to use copyrighted material you didn’t create, we’d strongly advise you to take legal advice first. YouTube cannot provide legal advice or make legal determinations.
FAIR USE does not exist in many other countries.