[Linux-aus] Resurrected TPP

[Josh Stewart]

On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 12:38 AM Jonathan Woithe via linux-aus <
linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> The nuts and bolts of the agreement were hammered out in November 2017, as
> described here:
>
>
> http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/news/Pages/trans-pacific-partnership-ministerial-statement.aspx
>
>
Further information specifically around this CPTPP appears to be at:
http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/news/Pages/news.aspx#tpp-news-20180124

The full text is specifically not made available at this time ("The text of
the agreement is currently undergoing a legal review and translation
(French, Spanish), and will be made public on a date to be agreed by all
Parties").
It is of course possible to submit an FOI request against DFAT for this
text, but such requests were unsuccessful for the TPP and are unlikely to
be any different now.


> The above is the result of a cursory look at the relevant documents.
> Others
> with more familiarity of the subject may be able to provide more clarity
> and
> determine whether we ought to be concerned about this latest development.
>

I am far from an authority around this, but I did author/co-author the 2
Linux Aus submissions that were made to DFAT (2014)[1] and JSCOT (2016)[2]
for the TPP. These seemed to be mostly in line with our communities values.

My personal opinion is that the final text of the TPP did soften some of
the worst areas from the leaked drafts, but it still contained much to
cause concern.

If we assume that the TPP text hasn't been changed significantly outside of
the sections that are suspended (This seems likely given the contents of
the Annex 1 document [3]) then the main areas that I see of concern (In a
rough order of importance) are:
1) Mandatory anti-circumvention of TPM / digital locks laws (That must
override existing fair use/dealing provisions)
2) Extended copyright terms
3) Restriction on governments being able to enforce their own open source
licenses
4) Restriction on governments mandating open source in tenders or requiring
source code availability for safety reviews.

I'll keep digging to see whether there is any more info available at the
moment, but otherwise we're in a similar position to the TPP. That is,
pressuring our representatives to at least discuss these concerns. The
timeline around this appears to be a desire for ratification late in 2018,
which may potentially be affected by an early election should one be
called.


Josh Stewart

[1]
http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/negotiations/Documents/tpp_sub_linux.pdf
[2]
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Treaties/9_February_2016/Submissions
(Submission number 128)
[3] http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/news/Documents/annex-1.pdf
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