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Electronic Frontier Foundation Australia Businesses Democrats Government Japan United States Politics

EFF Delivers 210,000 Signatures Opposing Trans-Pacific Partnership (eff.org) 101

Posted by EditorDavid from the lame-duck-legislation dept.
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: "The TPP is simply bad for tech users and innovators," writes the Electronic Frontier Foundation, arguing the proposed trade agreement for the Pacific Rim "exports the most onerous parts of U.S. copyright law and prevents the U.S. from improving them in the future, while failing to include the balancing provisions that work for users and innovators, such as fair use." At a press conference, the EFF delivered 210,000 signatures gathered in conjunction with other activist groups "to call on Democratic Party Leader Nancy Pelosi to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership from going to a vote during the 'lame duck' session of Congress following the November election."

More signatures are still being collected online, to be delivered on July 21. In a statement, the EFF adds that the TPP also "does nothing to safeguard the free and open Internet, by including phony provisions on net neutrality and encryption, trade secrets provisions that carry no exceptions for journalism or whistleblowing, and a simplistic ban on data localization...to buy off big tech."
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EFF Delivers 210,000 Signatures Opposing Trans-Pacific Partnership More

EFF Delivers 210,000 Signatures Opposing Trans-Pacific Partnership

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  • Wrong, evil and going to happen (Score:5, Insightful)

    by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Sunday July 10, 2016 @07:39PM (#52485487)
    Sure the TPP is wrong and evil, but Disney and others in Hollywood want it and have bought our political leaders, so it is going to happen.

    • Re:Wrong, evil and going to happen (Score:5, Interesting)

      by The Real Dr John ( 716876 ) on Sunday July 10, 2016 @08:04PM (#52485601) Homepage

      There is massive public opposition to the TTP and TTIP on both sides of the Atlantic. When people learn what is in it, they invariably don't like it (unless they run a large multinational corporation, like Disney). It still may pass, but I wouldn't bet on it at this point. Even Clinton, the most corporate owned presidential candidate in history, has been forced to say it is a bad deal for the people. Of course, her surrogates at the DNC platform convention have refused repeatedly to formally denounce the TTP, so that says something about what Clinton would do once back in the White House again. Still, it is going to be a big stain on any politician's record who votes for it. There has never been this level of organized opposition to a trade deal. This time, now that there has been 20 years to assess NAFTA and CAFTA, many of the offending politicians may be voted out of office in the next election.

      • I should add that there may be lots of opposition to the TPP on both sides of the Pacific, but I haven't heard as much about complaints from the Pacific member states as I have from Europe about TTIP.

        • Re:Wrong, evil and going to happen (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Sunday July 10, 2016 @08:18PM (#52485681)

          I should add that there may be lots of opposition to the TPP on both sides of the Pacific, but I haven't heard as much about complaints from the Pacific member states as I have from Europe about TTIP.

          TTIP is seen in Europe as purely an economic issue. But TPP is seen by many Asians as also a security arrangement, binding them into an American led world order, as opposed to the alternative of a Chinese dominated system. It is really too bad that TPP has so many flaws, because in principle it could have been good for both America and Asia.

          • Re:Wrong, evil and going to happen (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Fire_Wraith ( 1460385 ) on Sunday July 10, 2016 @08:37PM (#52485745)
            Very much this. A number of the Asian signatories, such as Japan, appear quite worried about the TPP not passing, because they equate it to being left to the mercy of China. It makes me rather angry with the assholes that pushed for all the intellectual property crap - not that there shouldn't be IP rights, but not the way that the eternal copyright maximalist group wants.

            • It makes me rather angry with the assholes that pushed for all the intellectual property crap

              Indeed. Many people in Asia are frustrated because Americans are turning against TPP because it contains so much crap that was included at the insistence of ... America. So Asians caved in to America on nearly every issue, and then America turns its back on the agreement anyway. Maybe the next time we are negotiated one of these agreements, the politicians should listen to the American people rather than just the corporations.

              • Well that should be a lesson to them then. Don't cave in to America! They should have pushed back, especially on the IP crap. We regular American voters don't want all that corporate crap, that's why we're all screaming about it being a bad deal. It's only a good deal if you're one of a few giant American corporations; for everyone else it sucks.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            "TTIP is seen in Europe as purely an economic issue"

            Eh? By who, not by the people of the EU.

            Home - Stop TTIP Stop TTIP [stop-ttip.org]
            Over 3 million signatures against, US has got some catching up to do!

          • TTIP is seen in Europe as purely an economic issue.

            Not by me it isn't - and not by many others who voted for UKIP and Brexit. Just like the EU, TTIP is mainly designed to take effective power away from national governments - which, however imperfectly, represent and are answerable to their citizens - and give it to faceless and utterly unanswerable individuals and corporations.

            As far as I am concerned, TTIP is purely a political issue. And it's as important as Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, or representative democracy - because it threatens to u

            • You do realise that you've taken the matter as regards the UK out of the control of the EU, where TTIP will never pass due to strong opposition by the French, and placed it in the hands of a Conservative UK government that is strongly in favour of passing it?

              • We have to tackle one problem at a time. The EU was the greater threat, and had to be dealt with first. If the British people cannot see to it that their government rejects TTIP, they don't deserve to retain their independence. But I have confidence that they will.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by iris-n ( 1276146 )

            TTIP is seen in Europe as purely an economic issue.

            No it isn't. It is rather political, mainly because of the insistence of the US in demanding investor-state dispute settlement [wikipedia.org], i.e., that corporations should have the right to overturn laws that threaten their profits. Besides that, there is also the European aversion to GMOs, that would be sold here if TTIP were approved.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          NZ has had large public protests but there is support for it here if we actually got to vote on support/not support I am sure it would be a clear not support winner our democracy doesn't go that far. (we did get to vote on a flag though)

          The IP and parmac rules are the most troubling for NZ and the expected returns from TTPA is 1% gpd in 30 years (less than normal growth)

        • I live in one of the Pacific states affected by the TPP. There have been many, quite large protests against the TPP, but they get almost no press here, or anywhere else I assume.

          For instance there was a march through the main street of our largest city last summer, which was held on a Saturday, as most of the protesters had jobs, and were not the usual rent-a-mob crowd.

          I happened to be in town at the time, and witnessed at least 25,000 people marching. It hardly got any mention at all on the TV news th

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          Keep in mind the leaked response from the Australia government representatives who actually signed the accord, "It was worse than swallowing dead rats". As to why they were swallowing dead rats in the first place, perhaps it was part of the Toilet Paper Protocol (for what it does to countries constitutions) initiation. It looks like they have zero chance of getting it through, they are just making themselves look worse and worse. I think they keep pushing it, even though they know they have lost because the

      • There is massive public opposition to the TTP and TTIP on both sides of the Atlantic.

        There is noisy opposition from a minority. The vote count does not reflect any opposition. Look at who is winning elections all over the world.

        Even Clinton, the most corporate owned presidential candidate in history, has been forced to say it is a bad deal for the people.

        Clinton (and all the other top candidates) will say anything. Her past history on the matter speaks much louder than whatever she says on the campaign trai

        • What you mean to say is What they tell us the election results were. They sure don't match reality. You don't have to look any further than the California Primary to see the massive election fraud in the United States.

          • On what are you basing that?

            • Comment removed based on user account deletion

              • Those are weird guidelines if they're talking about media polls, and to me that's garbage. Your daily horoscope is more accurate than a damn media poll. The weather forecaster is more accurate. If there is a problem, then you recount the ballots. It's up to the voters to demand real paper ballots that can be counted. And no matter bad the fraud might be, if people don't contest the results, not a lot can be done. This the game they choose. They want to push the button and go home and complain for two years.

            • Bernie had overwhelming support in California filling stadiums while Clinton was hard presses to even fill a schoolroom. Young voters complained of having their registration switched from Democrat to Republican in high numbers. Pool workers complained of being given bad instructions that claimed that Independent voters could not vote in the primary (it turn out in California they are legally entitled to vote in either primary). Exit polls can usually spot any obvious problem, so none of the major media pla

              • Also, Clinton only won when independents were kept out of the voting. Clinton's political machine and the DNC had control over the primaries all the way down to the precinct level. They could pull strings everywhere. Like Bernie said, it is going to take a political revolution in this country to take it back from our criminal corporate overlords.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by iris-n ( 1276146 )

        There is massive public opposition to the TTP and TTIP on both sides of the Atlantic.

        To be honest Europeans don't really care about the TTP, they just really dislike the TTIP.

      • Where is this MASSIVE opposition? 210,000 signatures isn't much. There were way more than that at WhiteHouse.GOV to have Justin Bieber deported following his string of arrests. Note that he is still here.

      • In yesterdays news, the promises a politician made prior to being elected turned out to be nothing but a complete lie.

    • Disney likes there H1B's and with this bill they can use it to wipe any bills that will change the law.

  • EFFin' copyrights (Score:2, Informative)

    by rmdingler ( 1955220 )
    There are not a great number of causes worth getting behind any more, but the free and open internet is decidedly one of them.

    This is not only a Democratic pillar, as your conservative candidate [ballotpedia.org] may also oppose this rendition of the treaty.

    • Ugh. Sobering link. What pieces of shit these people are!

      Even when this thing tries to make them look "good" by putting them on the right side, it shows them to be deplorable people who should not ever hold any policy-making office in government.

      Raise wages, increase jobs, yadda yadda. Where the fuck is the talk about civil rights? Basic fairness and justice? These are totally irrelevant issues for the leading Republicrat candidates, and it shows in every damn word they say about almost any issue. All th

  • Signatures mean nothing (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    our politicians only listen to dollars.

  • Reminder EFF is american (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Most people think EFF is for all people, I am Canadian, I was going to donate, but this just proves they are for American interests only, not for interests of Canadians, Europeans, Asians.

    • So the tpp somehow helps you in Canada? Or is it that they did something without mentioning Canada?

      What is it that makes a statement seemingly so moronic somehow justifiably insightful?

  • Hillary and TTP (Score:2, Insightful)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 )
    Hillary as Sec of State worked to create TTP along with President Obama. And early in the election cycle fully supported it. It was only as Bernie started to cause her problems that she said she was against TTP. This opposition to TTP is only a smoke screen. Once safely in the Oval office she will return to fully supporting TTP. And will be pushing hard for it's passage.
    • What is this TTP thing that you are mentioning? This thread is about TPP isn't it? As a resident of New Zealand, one of the countries heavily involved in the creation of the TPP, I have to say that I hope and pray that the TPP does not see the light of day. It imposes American corporate will on us little guys in a most ugly way. Unnecessarily heavy-handed IP laws combined with hideously expensive drugs combined with the right of multinational corporations to overturn our local regulations make it intolerabl
  • I already patented the idea of the "international trade treaty" and trademarked TransPacific Partnershipâ, as well as copyrighting the ©TPP text.

  • Is This Just Another Worthless On-Line Poll? (Score:3)

    by westlake ( 615356 ) on Sunday July 10, 2016 @09:41PM (#52486035)
    It used to be you had to go out knocking on doors to get people to sign your petition. Running the risk of getting the door slammed in your face. Now you just post the thing the thing on a web site where the nay-sayers won't be around to spoil your fun.
  • Why Nancy Pelosi? It's not her decision what gets a vote in the house, it's Paul Ryan.
  • Petitions are meaningless in federal law.
    Signatures on nothing mostly, since most are electronic.
    Anyone who wants to make this a single issue vote in Nov. really needs to wake up. Most Republicans support it.

    If congress doesn't pass it before January, it may never pass. Just because Clinton won't oppose it doesn't mean she'll support it on her watch.
    Don't make assumptions.

  • Here's the Scoop (Score:4, Interesting)

    by retroworks ( 652802 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @07:08AM (#52487737) Homepage Journal

    The "most onerous portions of USA copyright law" are tiddlywinks compared to the "most onerous portions" of Japanese copyright law (citation Fuji vs. Jazz Camera, Lexmark vs. Arizona Cartridge Manufacturers). Unfortunately, Japan's interpretation of protecting OEM rights internationally ("e-waste" takeback laws were invented in Japan for reasons having NOTHING to do with environmental destiny and EVERYTHING to do with re-manufacture and reverse-engineering) seems to have metastasized in Asia. EFF is on the right side of this, but pulling TPP's finger from the hole in the dike may result in "the perfect is the enemy of the good", ie if the USA was the strongest proponent to protect copyright - Disney lobbyists aside - then it's speculation whether TPP "could have done more".

    I'm not an expert in TPP, or what concessions USA made or even brought to the table to protect USA lobbyists. But I'm above average as expert in the fact that trade is generally anti-protectionism, and protectionism is generally anti-trade, and TPP, NAFTA, TAP, etc. are generally trying to remove barriers. Glad EFF is there, but when I interviewed them about Chinese and Japanese law they said they didn't have enough bandwidth to be experts in that, and since the point of TPP is to leverage Japan vs. China (which despite certain idiot comments is NOT PART OF TPP), we had to find common ground, ie try to compromise with Japan.

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