US trade agreement exposed

[Daniel Pocock]

This latest leak looks similar to the US agenda in Europe:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australians-may-pay-the-price-in-transpacific-partnership-free-trade-agreement-20131113-2xh0m.html

Of particular interest:

- all talks held in private, even members of parliament have been kept
in the dark

- heavier patent obligations - although the impact on pharma is
discussed, it is not hard to imagine these things extrapolated to
software patents, with a negative impact on free software development in
Australia (Samba originated in Australia, but just imagine if Microsoft
could accuse them of violating some patent...)

The only upside to this is that if US software vendors continue to
maintain higher prices in Australia (an issue that receives regular
complaints in the Australian press, many products are 20% or more
expensive) then it continues to give people an extra reason to encourage
the use of free software.