The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Copyright | Organization for Transformative Works
A concern about the repeated appearance of SOPA scare notices is that fans who spend time and energy on false alarms may overlook or decide to skip responding when…
SOPA is NOT back. However, keep an eye on the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership legislation.
This stuff is super-skeevy bad news that includes a fairly significant component that essentially rewrites copyright and fair use NOT ONLY for the US, but for other nations that sign onto the treaty as well. This includes China, Japan, the countries of southeast Asia, Australia, Chile, and other Latin/South American nations.
(It also possibly includes, based on leaks, some pretty creepy stuff about ‘trade barriers’ like requiring companies to include informational labeling.)
The even creepier thing is that the negotiations are classified and Congress—the government body actually responsible for international dealings—has not been allowed access to them.
Furthermore, the executive branch has been trying to ‘fast-track’ the Congressional vote that will eventually determine whether the TPP is accepted by the US or not—so that they have a minimal amount of time to review or edit the agreement before they’re required to vote on it.
SOPA is not back–but other things are