While ACTA looks to be dead, the US has another vehicle for imposing its copyright tyranny on other countries: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While this is being negotiated in secret, leaked drafts and position papers have shown that the US is pushing for an extensive intellectual property chapter, which would result in significant changes to New Zealand law, to the detriment of us all. So, last night at NetHui, a coalition including internetNZ, Consumer NZ and the Telecommunications User Association (TUANZ) launched the "Fair Deal" campaign to oppose it:
The coalition is concerned the agreement could give copyright holders the power to veto parallel imports, which would push up the price of DVDs and books .You can read more about the campaign here, and you can send an electronic postcard to the Minister of Trade here. overseas, governments have shown that they will respond to pressure on these treaties. We need to create that pressure, to stop Tim Groser from selling us down the river.The group is also concerned that the TPP could make the term of copyright longer. Under existing laws, content stays in copyright for 50 years after the death of its creator. In the United States the term is 70 years, and the "Fair Deal" coalition believe the TPP could force New Zealand to match this.
The coalition also says the TPP could lead to internet providers becoming the "judge and jury when it comes to copyright infringement" and give them the power to cut users off from accessing the internet.
