We already wrote about how New Zealand has released some of the details about the finalized TPP agreement before the official text is released. The one we discussed is forcing participants into a „life plus 70 years“ copyright term, even as the US had been exploring going back towards a life plus 50 regime like much of the rest of the world. That won‘t be possible any more.

Another issue revealed in the New Zealand announcement is that the TPP will similarly lock in an anti-circumvention clause. In the US, we have a really problematic anti-circumvention law in Section 1201 of the DMCA, which says it‘s against the law to circumvent „technological protection measures“ even if for reasons that are perfectly legal and non-infringing.