Trans Pacific Partnership is good news for workers in America’s creative industries
Justice Department’s IP enforcement move and agreement reached in TPP talks
Some important news on the online piracy front today. First, it appears that the U.S. Justice Department announced a new “collaborative” strategy to tackle (global) online piracy. From the press release:
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today that the Justice Department will launch a new collaborative strategy to more closely partner with businesses in intellectual property enforcement efforts and will award over $3.2 million to ten jurisdictions to support state and local task forces in the training, prevention, enforcement and prosecution of intellectual property theft and infringement crimes.
“The digital age has revolutionized how we share information, store data, make purchases and develop products, requiring law enforcement to strengthen our defenses against cybercrime – one of my top priorities as Attorney General,” said Attorney General Lynch. “High-profile instances of hacking – even against large companies like Sony and Target – have demonstrated the seriousness of the threat all business face and have underscored the potential for sophisticated adversaries to inflict real and lasting harm.”
Lynch also announced “$3.2 million in grants to aid state and local law enforcement in addressing intellectual property crimes.” While online piracy and counterfeiting seems to be more of a global issue, these grants can help root out pirates and counterfeiters based here at home.
Since IPEP’s establishment in 2009, the department has invested nearly $14.8 million for 41 task forces across the country. These grants have supported the arrest of 3,522 individuals, the dismantling of 1,882 piracy or counterfeiting organizations and the seizure of $266,164,989 in counterfeit property, other property and currency in conjunction with IP enforcement operations.
Also today came the announcement that an accord was reached in negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. –NY Times
The agreement is not without its critics and still faces a tough battle for Congressional approval. For those concerned about copyright and piracy issues though, the pact seems to offer positive news. Given that online piracy knows no borders, the more that can be done to standardize international laws against content theft the better. The theft for profit eco-system that has wildly metastasized online because operates beyond the reaches of law enforcement may have finally met its match.
According to the US Trade Representative’s TPP website, here’s how “Innovation and Creativity” would be enhanced:
HOW TPP PROMOTES INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY
Strong and balanced IP standards are critical for driving innovation and protecting American jobs. TPP requires parties to:
- Establish strong patentability standard, with appropriate limitations drawn from international commitments, to protect the jobs and solutions to global challenges generated by U.S. innovators in areas ranging from solar panels to smart manufacturing.
- Adopt strong copyright protections – drawn from international norms – to respect the rights of creators and establish clear protection of works such as songs, movies, books, and computer software, and to facilitate the development of new business models for distributing creative content that keeps pace with evolving technology.
- Include – for the first time – an obligation that requires Parties to continuously seek to achieve an appropriate balance in copyright systems through, among other things, exceptions and limitations, to copyright for legitimate purposes, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, and clarifies that exceptions and limitations are available for the digital environment
- Establish copyright safe harbors for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to develop their business, while also helping to address Internet copyright infringement in an effective manner. TPP includes no obligations on these ISPs to monitor content on their networks or systems, and provides for safeguards against abuse of such safe harbor systems.
As MPAA CEO Chris Dodd noted in a statement congratulating negotiators on their efforts, the TPP is particularly good news for Americans whose livelihoods come from work in the creative industries:
Enacting a high-standard TPP is an economic priority for the American motion picture and television industry, which registered nearly $16 billion in exports in 2013 and supports nearly two million jobs throughout all fifty states.
It’s too soon to tell what the result of either announcement will be, but multi-lateral action against this type of theft is long overdue. The internet is no longer in its infancy and it’s past time for some rational order be brought to an out of control, Wild West world of illegal commerce that undermines the viability of creators around the world.