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Given the massive impact that new-style
trade agreements like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP are likely to have on the
lives of hundreds of millions of people, it's surprising how few members
of the public know about what's being negotiated in their name.
Fortunately, publications are starting to run more articles on the
subject, like this great piece by David Brodwin in US News.
On
Techdirt.
We last wrote about the Russian social network site VKontakte, often called "The Facebook of Russia," a year ago. Since then, lots of bad stuff
has been happening in Russia as a part of clampdown on online activity
there, and now VKontakte is back in the news, with a pair of rather
contradictory stories.
On
Techdirt.
Last month, Techdirt wrote about the requirement for librarians employed by the Canadian government to self-censor
their opinions, even in private. This came in the wake of similar
restrictions being placed on government scientists. We pointed out that
this kind of muzzling created a really bad precedent that might one day
even be extended to the public. It seems that moment has come sooner than expected:
On
Techdirt.
Despite increasing calls for the imminent TAFTA/TTIP
trade negotiations to be conducted as openly as possible, it seems
likely that, as with ACTA and TPP, everything will be decided behind
closed doors. That means the rest of us are forced to take our
information about what is likely to happen where we can find it. For
example, a new survey entitled "The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Ambitious but Achievable"
(pdf), carried out by The Bertelsmann Foundation and Atlantic Council,
offers some interesting thoughts on the subject. Here's the
description:
On
Techdirt.
Techdirt has been covering the free trade agreement being negotiated
between India and the EU for a while now -- that is, as well as anyone
can report on something that is being conducted behind closed doors.
Despite or maybe even because of that secrecy, one issue in particular
has raised concerns: that India's crucial role as supplier of low-cost
generics to the world's poor might be under threat. Against that background, this report on the Live Mint site comes as something of a surprise:
On
Techdirt.
Traditionally, there has been a blithe assumption that more innovation
occurs when patents are granted than when they are not. But as Techdirt
has reported, people are finally beginning to call that into question.
A forthcoming paper from an economist at MIT, Heidi Williams, provides
another example of where that is not the case: in the field of genomics
(via @gsDetermination).
On
Techdirt.
Techdirt has written a few times about Turkey's difficult
relationship with new technology. Unfortunately, it looks like that
now includes Twitter, as two troubling decisions against users have been
handed down recently. Here's the first, as reported by the Turkish Web
site Hürriyet Daily News:
On
Techdirt.
The last time Techdirt wrote about "pay for delay"
deals, whereby a big pharma company essentially buys off manufacturers
of generics so that the former can continue to enjoy monopoly pricing
long after its patents have expired, things didn't look too good. Back
in 2010, the Second Circuit had refused to re-hear a case on the issue
after dismissing a lawsuit arguing these deals were anti-competitive.
But now things seem very different, and not just in the US.
On
Techdirt.
Most companies have a natural tendency to keep details of their
activities secret -- the fear being that competitors might be able to
exploit for commercial advantage the information that they obtain. But
it may be in the public interest for some details to be released, even
if this might prove inconvenient for the company concerned. That's the
background to a letter sent by ten law professors, including Larry
Lessig, to the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, pointed out to us by infojustice.org.
On
Techdirt.
One of the many problems with the secretive nature of trade agreements
is that it insulates negotiators from the real-world consequences of
their actions. That's particularly true for the FTA talks between the EU and India,
currently taking place behind closed doors. One of the key issues for
the EU side is India's role as a supplier of generic medicines to the
world, and India's tough stance on issues like the evergreening
of pharma patents. From the various leaks that we have, it seems that
the EU is demanding that India toe the line on drug patents, and cut
back its supply of low-cost generics to emerging countries.
On
Techdirt.
As regular readers of this column know, there's still a battle going on over whether standards should be FRAND or restriction/royalty-free (RF). The folly of allowing standards to contain FRAND-licensed elements is shown most clearly by the current bickering
between Microsoft and Google. What makes that argument such a waste of
time and money is the fact that for 20 years we have had the most stunning demonstration of the power of RF:
Earlier this month I wrote a couple of posts about a letter I sent off to the European Commission concerning my appalling experience with the IPRED consultation. Well, I now have a reply, which I reproduce below:
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Sorry to trouble you again this week, but there's an important vote in INTA today
(25 April) on the transatlantic trade agreement (TAFTA/TTIP), and there
are some crucial issues that you might like to convey to your MEP, especially if they are on the INTA committee.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
It seems that the UK government will be deciding what to do about the Snooper's Charter
this week. It is already under huge pressure as more and more problems
with the plans become evident. I urge you to write to your MP (perhaps
using WriteToThem.com) to express your own concerns.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Back in February, I noted that the UK's investigation into making clinical trial data freely available was somewhat subsidiary to the EU's
major initiative on the same subject. The battle there between those
who wish to keep clinical trials data secret, for fear that it might
show pharma companies in a bad light, and those who believe that it must
be released to save money and - more importantly - save lives is now
increasingly fierce.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
As regular readers of this column will know, software patents have
never really gone away, even though the European Patent Convention
forbids them, and the European Parliament explicitly rejected them
again in 2005. Fans of intellectual monopolies just keep coming back
with new ways of getting around those bans, which means that the battle
to stop them crippling the European software industry has to be fought
again and again.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
It seems hard to believe that it was only a little over a year ago that the threat from the US SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) was averted (and that ACTA was
still with us in the EU). But of course the war is never won: new
threats to freedom and openness on the Internet just keep on coming.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Remember MySQL? Most famous for being part of the LAMP stack,
and thus powering the bulk of the innovative work done in the field of
ecommerce for a decade or more, it's rather fallen off the radar
recently. It's not hard to see why: Oracle's acquisition of Sun, which
had earlier bought MySQL for the not inconsiderable sum of $1 billion,
meant that one of the key hacker projects was now run by the archetypal
big-business mogul, Larry Ellison. So it was natural that people were
unsure about MySQL's future, and started looking for alternatives.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
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