Slashdot Mirror


Trans-Pacific Partnership Enables Harsh Penalties For Filesharing

An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation went through a recent leak of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, an international treaty in development that (among other things) would impose new intellectual property laws on much of the developed world. The EFF highlights one section in particular, which focuses on the punishments for copyright infringement. The document doesn't set specific sentences, but it actively encourages high monetary penalties and jail terms. Its authors reason that these penalties will be a deterrent to future infringement. "The TPP's copyright provisions even require countries to enable judges to unilaterally order the seizure, destruction, or forfeiture of anything that can be 'traceable to infringing activity,' has been used in the 'creation of pirated copyright goods,' or is 'documentary evidence relevant to the alleged offense.' Under such obligations, law enforcement could become ever more empowered to seize laptops, servers, or even domain names."

4 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What were you expecting? by farble1670 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If we continue to cultivate a society where even the most crafted and artisan digital items are throwaway flash sale detritus, how can we expect to continue enjoying the talented minds that create them?

    interesting.

    when profits drop to reasonable levels for music and movies, they'll get made / created by people with a love for the art, as opposed to a love for money. sounds fine.

  2. Re:What were you expecting? by trout007 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Intellectual monopoly is a danger to real property rights. You cant own something if you aren't allowed to configure it how you want.

    --
    I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
  3. "Four boxes" by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As the saying goes: "There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo. Please use in that order."

    But treaties circumvent three of those boxes.

    Guess which one is left.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  4. expropriation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "destruction, or forfeiture of anything that can be 'traceable to infringing activity,' has been used in the 'creation of pirated copyright goods," So we can get the mpaa's members' equipment, cameras, sound stages and whatnot destroyed or forfeited because all the pirated copyright goods trace back to where the material was created and distributed?

    Sounds like a recipe for government confiscation of private property.