Thanks for supporting Marketplace this Giving Tuesday. If you missed it - you can still contribute to powering public media! Donate Now!

WikiLeaks exposes Pacific Rim treaty’s secret IP provisions

Molly Wood Nov 14, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

WikiLeaks exposes Pacific Rim treaty’s secret IP provisions

Molly Wood Nov 14, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

WikiLeaks is back in the headlines after the anti-secrecy organization published a chapter of a working draft of an international trade pact between the United States, Mexico, Japan, and other Pacific Rim countries. On Wednesday, WikiLeaks dropped the draft of intellectual property chapter of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Pact. The leak is being heralded by public interest groups for pulling back the curtain on how the United States seems to be pushing strong IP protections on its partners. 

“The TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons,” warned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a press release.

“These countries are sitting down and trying to figure out how to harmonize their intellectual property laws, so in the digital age, we can cut down on piracy, and you know, bad stuff that’s happening on the internet,” says Cyrus Farivar, senior business editor at the website Ars Technica.

Click the audio player to hear more about this story.

 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.