Farrar is certainly right that the NZ government could not have unilaterally released the text and that Labour politicians pretending otherwise are being disingenuous. New Zealand could have, and likely did, push within the treaty process for the text to be released periodically, but that kind of thing needs broad consensus. So while I'm glad that NZ didn't do something silly on this front, I'm also glad that somebody leaked the text.
NZ seems generally on the side of the angels in here. People do use copyright maliciously - read TechDirt for the daily litany. The US, and Japan, wanted to block countries from implementing penalties where rights-holders acted abusively; everybody else, NZ included, took the other side:
Article QQ.A.9: {Implementation of this Chapter}The US wants copyright extension to 70 years, as Farrar notes. They also want retrospective protection of things that entered the public domain in countries like New Zealand where copyright expires 20 years earlier. That suggests that somebody should start archiving everything that has fallen into the public domain here before doing so is illegal, in case the US wins this part of the fight against everybody else.
[CL/NZ/VN/AU/BN/SG/PE/MY/MX/CA24 propose; US/JP oppose: 1. Nothing in this
Chapter shall prevent a Party from adopting appropriate measures to prevent: (a) the
abuse of intellectual property rights by right holders or the resort to practices that unreasonably restrain trade or adversely affect the international transfer of technology; and (b) anticompetitive practices that may result from the abuse of intellectual property rights;, provided that such measures are consistent with this Agreement.
NZ sided with the US, and against everybody else, in supporting asset forfeiture for copyright breaches:
[US/NZ propose; BN/SG/MY/CL/PE/AU/VN/CA/MX/JP oppose: (f) that its judicial authorities have the authority to order the seizure or forfeiture of assets the value of which corresponds to that of the assets derived from, or obtained directly or indirectly through, the infringing activity];Maybe NZ wants Kim DotCom's house.
The US and Australia opposed, and everybody else supported, limiting the liability facing ISPs whose networks were used in copyright infringement.
Finally, NZ, along with some others, proposed:
[Article QQ.A.2bis: {Principles}I expect this is to allow New Zealand to implement tobacco plain packaging regardless of what it does to the brand value for affected producers.
[NZ/CA/SG/CL/MY propose: 1. Each Party may, in formulating or amending its laws and regulations, adopt measures necessary to protect public health and nutrition, and to promote the public interest in sectors of vital importance to its socio-economic and technological development, provided that such measures are consistent with the provisions of this Chapter.
The Fair Deal Coalition worries that parallel importation could be at risk. I didn't see it in a quick skim of the text, but I did only give the text a quick skim.
A good deal is better than no deal. No deal is better than a bad deal. Whether the net winds up being worthwhile depends on where the negotiations go from here and what's in the other, unreleased, chapters.
Might be difficult to pay for the kids' school lunches with stripperbux, too.
ReplyDelete"They also want retrospective protection of things that entered the
ReplyDeletepublic domain in countries like New Zealand where copyright expires 20
years earlier."
That might threaten my future income, if C. S. Lewis's works are to be retroactively monopolized again after they enter the public domain next year: https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/1551
Stamps have been used as currency in the past. There's even more reason to use them for that purpose now that we have somewhat crudely inflation-adjusted KiwiStamps. But there is, of course, the age-old risk of default: http://www.nytimes.com/1862/10/02/news/post-office-stamps-as-currency-it-is.html
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of tipping dollars. I have visited a good number of strip clubs in Southern California, plus a few in Nevada and Louisiana.
ReplyDeleteHm, I see that Bruce Hoult is from New Zealand. I've never seen it that way in the U.S. (Or Tijuana, for that matter.)
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who owned a bar that took stripper bux from a nearby strip club... The club owner was a useless shiester, who never kept a float in the tills, and the only times they could actually be redeemed were late on a busy night. So he accepted this currency that was mostly useless elsewhere, and sent the glassy over at times when it could actually be redeemed.
ReplyDelete