Trans-Pacific Partnership forum: How it threatens journalistic freedom and Internet democracy

A forum sponsored by the Pacific Media Workers Guild

Monday, March 21, at 7 p.m.

Bernal Library Community Room

500 Cortland St.

San Francisco

Speakers:

• Maira Sutton, Electronic Frontier Foundation global policy analyst
• Richard Knee, freelance journalist and Guild Legislative and Political Committee chair

Certain TPP provisions would seriously jeopardize the rights of reporters, the news media and whistleblowers. They would, among other things:

• Compel Internet service providers to take down websites without a court order, as the Stop Online Piracy Act would have done had the House Judiciary Committee not shelved it in 2012.

• Extend U.S. copyrights to life plus 70 years, preventing anyone from using works that belong in the public domain.

• Bar unauthorized disclosure of corporate trade secrets, putting journalists and whistleblowers at risk of lawsuits or even criminal prosecution for exposing corporate misdeeds.

• 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 United States’ broken copyright policies without expanding free-speech protections such as fair use.

These rules will become U.S. law if Congress ratifies participation in the TPP.