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TPP still threatens Kiwi IP rights

According to media reports, the government is standing strong on its insistence that NZ will not sign up to the TPP unless it is granted tariff-free access to the US market for its agricultural products.

Well actually, they're not quite so staunch and are suggesting that some kind of progressive abatement of the tariffs would be okay (sigh!).

Another sticking point is the continuation of Pharmac's ability to buy generic medicines at bulk rates and from whoever it chooses -- at least that's what John Key has been telling the news agencies -- to which I say "100% pure" (see today's second column).

Now this kind of "stand up to the man" attitude to negotiating a TPP with the USA might sound all well and good but it's actually very, very worrying to those who look beyond the headlines.

As we know, negotiations require give and take. It's clear that the government doesn't want to give (much) in the areas of agriculture or Pharmac so, in order to reach an accord with the USA, they'll likely be bending over backwards to accommodate the US in other areas.

And some of the key areas are those of copyright and patent law reform.

The government has already demonstrated that it's happy to open the door to US copyright law on previous occasions and, if it's the concession they feel necessary to "stand strong" in other areas, I have no doubt we'll see the rights of NZers "gone by lunchtime" in respect to the power that the MPAA/RIAA has over our lawmakers.

Of course if TPP negotiations weren't shrouded in secrecy then we'd know exactly what was going on. What is it that we're told each time we have a little more of our right to privacy stripped away from us?

Oh yes, that's right -- "only those with something to hide have anything to fear".

Well what is the government hiding from the people of NZ and what do the fear would happen if we really knew what they were doing with our rights and freedoms behind the closed doors of the TPP negotiations?

I'm sorry but in a democracy it is the right of every citizen to know exactly what their government is doing with those rights and freedoms -- not to simply be told *after* they're signed away by a handful of people who have proven themselves ill-acquainted with the concepts of actually representing those who elected them.

So, is it worth sacrificing the right to own a region-free DVD player for the prospect of having US dairy tariffs phased out over the next 100 years?

Is it worth giving "appointed distributors" the right to charge whatever they want for anything that is protected by copyright, patent or trademark (by dint of making parallel imports illegal) in return for a handshake from President Obama?

These are decisions that ought not be made by a tiny number of politicians who have already shown themselves willing to set-aside the laws that ought to protect NZ residents in order to appease huge US industries -- as has been repeatedly done in the Dotcom case .

These are decisions that ought not be made by a tiny number of politicians who have already shown themselves willing to be bribed by US movie studios into changing labour laws to the detriment of "regular Kiwis" as happened in the case of The Hobbit movie.

Come on people -- wake up here. It's time to demand our right to democratic representation and none of our important rights or freedoms ought to be signed away by a bunch of self-interested dim-bulbs behind the secrecy of closed doors.

Or do you fancy seeing your kids (or grandmother) hit with millions of dollars in fines (at the behest of the RIAA) for downloading some crappy pop-song from the internet?

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