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Google Announces Support of the Controversial TPP (recode.net)
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced in a blog post Friday their support for the controversial Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP). Recode reports: "The trade agreement includes key provisions about the global passage of digital data, intellectual property and copyright -- measures that have drawn criticism from both the political right and left, including several outspoken tech groups. Google's endorsement isn't exactly full-throated, but its stake clearly demonstrates another key area of support with the Obama administration, to which Google is close." Google's SVP and general counsel Kent Walker wrote: "The TPP is not perfect, and the trade negotiation process would certainly benefit from greater transparency. We will continue to advocate for process reforms, including the opportunity for all stakeholders to have a meaningful opportunity for input into trade negotiations." The company has already shown support of the TPP behind the Internet Association, which endorsed the trade agreement in March. Google joins a list of other tech titans, like Apple and Microsoft, who have shown their support as well. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls the TPP a "secretive, multinational trade agreement" that will restrict IP laws and enforce digital policies that "benefit big corporations at the expense of the public." The TPP is still awaiting congressional approval after being signed in February.
The TPP was written by corporations, for corporations. No surprise that Google supports it. We need a revolution in this country.
Don't be evil... unless it gets in the way of profit.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Just like the 200+ comments on Hacker News, another news aggregation site with a very tech-savvy demo, you will have to look really hard to find anyone who supports the TPP.
The EFF has written extensively how digital rights are negatively affected by this.
The TPP is bad, bad, bad, and it's been fast tracked for passage with no debate/oversight. Hopefully there will be a SOPA-like outcry against it that shuts it down. All three Dem/GOP presidential candidates claim to be against it (but we'll see how long that lasts). Not sure about libertarian candidates.. somehow I suspect they'll take the more traditional "free trade" perspective, but maybe I'll be delightfully surprised.
Too bad Google's on the wrong side of history here.
Google has been sucking President Obama's cock since the day he took office. Their people have visited the White House just about weekly since he started work.
President Obama, like President Clinton, is a hard-core right wing conservative masquerading as somebody who gives a fuck about anybody who doesn't pull down a $30 million per year salary. Hillary Clinton will be exactly the same.
Google is backing Obama, Clinton and the TPP because all of them are bought and paid for by people who want to put you in jail if your 10-year-old kid downloads a Disney song.
That's not hyperbole, by the way.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Just after Google is apparently skewing search results for Clinton, they suddenly come out in support of a position that she's strongly in favor for. Just coincidence right? The number of coincidences going on with tech companies these days is just pretty amazing. There of course is another story on this with google saying it's true gov' we're not skewing anything. It's almost like when twitter started suspending non-feminists for objecting to the use of #killallmen, but feminists still use it to this day without any problems.
Om, nomnomnom...
Google now appropriately deserves to lose their Oracle case now.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Im pretty sure the party they mostly like is the prohibition on countries demanding data for their citizens be stored in the respective country so that the local militarized police can go in and demand access to it at any time. A lot of the other things they are not so happy about, but are willing to swallow a lot of bad things in order to get that in as a binding provision. Most people don't want to have to be building data centers all over the planet which can then be seized the next time a local politician thinks it would be neat to own a supercomputer. They also want to be able to migrate and replicate data outside the country in question to avoid downtime.
TPP and TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) were written by the corporations and US government, so they've read the "trade deal". Meanwhile in Europe, hardly any politician has read TTIP, it's guarded like a top secret military document, no copies exist "on the outside". So how are most of Europe's politicians, ESPECIALLY the UK, in favour of signing TTIP?
Sounds to me like politicians are being blackmailed, given kickbacks, or both by the US government or corporations, either in money, or directorships in US company subsidiaries once the European politician leaves office.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
Fool me once, shame on Hillary
1980's-1992: Served on board of Walmart, union buster. Nobody there ever heard her support unions.
1990's-early 2000's Hillary: I support my husband's push for NAFTA
Democrat Party supporting Unions: This is (provably) not good for us
2007-2008 Election season Hillary: I think NAFTA was a bad idea and I oppose free trade with Columbia
2007-2008 Hillary supporters: Hillary is allowed to change her mind (sound familiar?)
Fool me twice, shame on me
2011: Emails show she LOBBIED Congress to push for free trade with Columbia, which passed!
2012-2014 Hillary: I'm fully behind the Trans Pacific Partnership (she said this publicly 45 times claiming this is the 'gold standard')
(NOTE AFTER SHE SAID NAFTA WAS BAD!)
Democrat Party supporting Unions: This is not good for us
Sanders said TPP was not good!
2015-2016 Election season Hillary: I'm (now) against the Trans Pacific Partnership
it's got nothing to do with privacy or supporting military states though. It's outsourcing. Expect to see a lot of good IT jobs that are left go off to India and the Philippines. Man I wish tech workers were such a bunch of smarthy asses. We're all convinced we're the one they can't replace. I hear it all the time from my coworkers who've been lucky enough to survive the various rounds of layoffs. I think it comes with the territory in IT. You talk to idiots all day. The dumbest of the dumb who can't open a spreadsheet by double clicking it. It's natural to think you're just smarter. It made us easy to outsource since we're either too proud or dumb to Unionize.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Seriously, that is so freaken cute that you think your government gives one single fuck what you write or think. They don't.
You think they give a single fuck if they are voted out? Why should they? They get their pay for life. They will always have a high paying job when they are out of office because of the favors that they sold to their corporate masters.
There are VERY few politicians who are willing to go against ruling class. Regardless of your letters.
No, your letter will make no difference at all. They system is too far gone. Too long corrupted. The checks and balances are gone. The people now fear the government and with good reason.
?Look at all the court rulings lately. Warrant needed for you bank card? Nope. Warrant needed to take your money? Nope. Criminal charges needed to take your money? Nope. It goes on and on.
Too long has the population sat on their collective asses while the power was consolidated. Too long were the masses so blinded by shiny gadgets that they would not look behind the curtain.
No fellow citizen, the time for letters has passed. It falls unfortunately to the young ones to get back on track. Most sadly, see nothing wrong with the current system.
Decently put. I'm in the same boat.
I was going to disagree with you about capitalism, but the wiki on free-market capitalism says that it includes some intervention where necessary to keep the market set by supply/demand (e.g. no monopolies). So it kind of depends on which definition of capitalism you go with.
I actually like Capitalism. But it seriously has to be protected from itself, as do most idealistic concepts. Because it kills itself very quickly. A system based on greed - or better put, the concept of doing well for yourself will almost always shake out to the greediest, after they get ahead of others, wanting to alter the game so they make more, or in pathological cases, all of the money.
As for the definition of capitalism, it has been corrupted, and altogether too many politicians have bought into it. The old "class warfare" pejoratives that used to be trotted out any time someone complained about excesses were the highlight of the one sided supply side argument.
Somewhere along the line, we forgot that the best way to have producers become wealthy was to have people have the money to purchase their goods.
Maybe this is why there's been a push lately to not teach algebra in schools. THe idea that an equation has two sides is dangerous thought.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.