U.S., Canada clash over copyright at TPP negotiations, WikiLeaks shows

A draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, leaked Wednesday, shows that the U.S. and Canada have found themselves at odds over copyright issues during the negotiating process. The 95-page draft of the intellectual property chapter of the agreement, posted online by WikiLeaks Wednesday, is different from a previously-leaked draft because it includes the negotiating positions of the 12 participating countries, as well as alternative proposals, Michael Geist, the Canada research chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview. “Many of the other participants in the negotiations are aligned with Canada in opposing largely the U.S., who is finding some support from Australia and a little bit from Japan on some issues, but is more isolated on many of these things,” he said. Canada is pushing for provisions consistent with its current law, and is often supported by New Zealand, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile, Vietnam, Peru and Brunei Darussalam, Geist outlined in a blog post Wednesday. He added that the U.S., often supported by Australia, wants Canada to “rollback its recent copyright reform legislation with a long list of draconian proposals.” Geist said in the interview that the Canadian position is consistent with its position in current law.The government passed copyright reform bill C-11 last year. “It's no surprise the government doesn't want to change the law that it just finished passing,” he added. Geist said that “the bad news is that if the U.S. gets their way as a condition of reaching agreement, it's very clear that their demands are that Canada essentially tear up what they just did on copyright and engage in some major reforms.” Critics have previously said that the TPP could have significant implications for Canada's copyright regime. In his blog post, Geist said that the U.S. objectives on copyright are different than nearly all the other countries. For instance, he said all of the TPP countries, with the exception of the U.S., Japan and Australia, have proposed an article which “references the need for balance, promotion of the public domain, protection of public health and measures to ensure that IP rights themselves do not become barriers to trade.” The U.S. and Japan are opposed to that article, he said. Advocacy group OpenMedia said in a release Wednesday that the document contained “extreme Internet censorship provisions, including secret transnational censorship courts that would override national laws.” OpenMedia added the leaked draft “confirms that the most aggressive censorship rules have been pushed by media conglomerates in the United States,” and called for the government to commit to pulling the “Internet censorship provisions,” like those criminalizing the sharing of copyrighted content, from the agreement. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca, files from Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing from Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca.

U.S., Canada clash over copyright at TPP negotiations, WikiLeaks shows

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U.S., Canada clash over copyright at TPP negotiations, WikiLeaks shows

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