I'm on the Organizing for America mailing list, and just got a request from them for questions that Obama advisor David Simas may answer on a phone call on Monday. Here's what I wrote:
I'm sure there is more I would ask if we knew the actual text of the proposed agreement, but it is still secret! Please release it, now, and stop pushing for fast track - to be a government of We the People, the public ought to to have time to evaluate anything with such far-reaching consequences. Here are a couple of areas of concern that I have heard about via leaks:
- Expansion of copyright, especially criminalization - just a few of the troubling provisions include revoking Internet access as a punishment for repeated copyright violations, disallowing people from breaking DRM for legal purposes, and infringements on fair use.
- Corporate welfare and trumping of popular sovereignty - word is, the bill expands corporations' ability to sue governments for expected revenue of projects that is "lost" due to government regulation - and not even in courts, but in some kind of international tribunal run by conflict-of-interest lawyers who otherwise work for the kinds of corporations bringing these actions. ("Investor-State Dispute Settlement")
So my question is, are these provisions still in the TPP, and what will it take to remove them?