The TPP: A Threat to Our Media and Rights on the Internet

3/21/16 Pacific Media Workers Guild Educational Forum

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Journalists & Democratic Communication Rights And The TPP Threat To Our Media and Rights On The Internet

Monday March 21, 2016 7:00 PM
Bernal Library Community Room
500 Cortland St.
San Francisco


Speakers:
Maira Sutton, Electronic Frontier Foundation Global Policy Analyst She has covered the topic extensively for the EFF
Richard Knee, freelance journalist, First Amendment activist and Pacific Media Workers Guild Legislative and Political Committee Chair


Contained within the legal rules of the TPP are sections that would seriously put into jeopardy the rights of reporters and the press.
These are just a few of its most dangerous pieces:

• Compel ISPs to take down websites without any sort of court order, just like SOPA.

• Extend the US’s copyright regime to require copyrights stand for life plus 70 years, preventing anyone from using works that belong in the public domain.

• Criminalize whistleblowing by extending trade secrets laws without any mandatory exemptions for whistleblowers or investigative journalists.

• End anonymity online by forcing every domain name to be associated with a real name and address.

• Make it illegal to unlock, modify, or generally tinker with a device you own.

• Export the US’s broken copyright policies to the rest of the world without expanding any of the free speech protections, like fair use.

These rules would become US law if the TPP is passed by the Congress. This educational forum will look address how the TPP would threaten our democratic rights and how it would harm the rights of the American people to get the information that they need from a free press.

Sponsored by the Pacific Media Workers Guild (PMWG, The News Guild-CWA Local 39521)
For more information on the forum
(415) 421-6833
http://www.mediaworkers.org