Re: In today's news...
Behold! The TPP documents released!
(Test)
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(News articles)
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And it's somehow even worse than everyone has been saying.
Small list:
ISPs forced to take down websites without court orders in case of suspected copyright infringements
Prison sentences mandatory for software piracy (As long as it is "Of sufficient scale", which is left undefined )
Corporations allowed to sue governments for 'not adequately protecting their intellectual property'
Corporations are allowed to choose what court to use for any such lawsuits. (And once selected, no other court will be allowed to go through it and it may not be publicly discussed anywhere)
Makes it illegal to modify a device you bought in any way (Without explicit approval)
Whisleblowers criminalised even further under 'trade secrets'
US copyright law's worst parts taken without any of the fair use protections (Such as satire and commentary)
Allows trademarking of any sound or smell
Unifies sanitary measures for goods
Removes unified sanitary measures
Then says sanitary measures will depend on whoever is being sanitary as long as they claim to be sanitary enough
Bonuses to immigrant workers
"The parties involved may decide to do more. Or less. Maybe." - On the subject of labour laws
Countries no longer allowed to impose limits on any sort of service, including state-sanctioned monopolies(Read: Privatise everything! Possibly even the water supply, will continue reading)
Possibly(?) mandates forming a TPP compliance agency for every state signing it? Also this national agency will be 100% synched up with that of others signing it, somehow.
Allows foreign intervention if nature protection laws are not followed through on (And at the same time allows for companies to sue to make sure said laws are not followed trough on)
(Unrelated note, this shit become messier every paragraph, it disagrees with itself and it's honestly just a mess)
Governments may no longer buy only from domnestic companies for military and other gov procurement, with a massive exception list that pretty much covers everything the gov/military uses
I'm going to just stop bothering reading through this mess, if you want to try - good luck, you'll need it. It's intentionally vague. Seriously, this stuff is more complicated and vague than occultist texts I've read before. Guides to summonning demons are less sanity draining than this
Edit: Went and found a comic that describes this document
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Also
Completely opens borders for finance related stuff like banks, thus ensuring the richest can get even richer without this nasty 'tax' thing getting in the way
Also for goods(Thus meaning that any and all production jobs will leave for the lowest wages, without having to worry about any tariffs making sure there are still jobs outside of China and extremely low wage countries)
Doesn't actually do anything for labour rights in 'developing nations'
While it TECHNICALLY does not block measures against global warming, or removes labour rights, it does make it near impossible to take such measures or give new rights(Even raising the min wage) without getting sued out the ass by companies for 'potential lost profits'. Any country is ALLOWED to take such measures, but they'll have to pay for 'lost profits' too.
Parts that are profitable to corporations(Such as being able to sue for profits) are as clear and unavoidable as possible, while environmental protection and labour rights are a mess of undefined terms, contradictions, and very broad wording.
One bright side, it makes unions allowed everywhere. Doesn't say they can't be corrupt or powerless, but at least they can't be banned.
It also (technically) outlaws slavery. Because apparently some countries haven't done that yet.
