Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Basically. Hence it's a favorite with the Very Serious People and loathed by pretty much everyone else, and there are enough VS Ps left to see it pass, especially because Obama has conceived of it strategically.

The problem is the ISDS and the drug stuff, which i still think will keep this thing in check long enough for it to become a political issue, then quietly dies when the new governments in Canada and/or Australia have specific anti-TPP platforms (or at least the new governments neuter it enough to be effective).

Although i agree that the EFF can get kind of shrill about this, the douchebags in Hollywood fighting for this and calling them names can go sit on a railroad spike. I don't think it will really impact the doujin culture, though. The political will isn't there, and that isn't the kind of copyright infringement anyone really cares to go after. At most, it could hurt doujins of American-owned works, a small group over there.

I'm sorry guys, I really am, but the effect of all this on "doujin culture" is the least of the issues I have with it. Although I realize that it's that aspect of it that "makes it personal" for them.

You have to think about the Sailor Moon porn, man. We'll lose a cultural touchstone!

Ignore the porn. That's what the west thinks of when we hear the word doujin, but that's far from the extent of it. It's basically their indie scene plus fanfiction. So imagine all your favorite non-DC and Marvel comics going away, in addition to every decent fanfic getting sued into oblivion. Not to mention that the "prosecute even if no one makes a copyright claim" (which is not the way any other crimes except murder work) would kill cosplay. You probably think of cosplay as just "those weirdos who dress up," but it would cripple every single fiction convention, plus freaking Halloween.

The law is, of course, completely unenforceable. But if they can scare people enough with it, it will do all that damage anyway.

Not exactly, you know how many Gundam Build Fighters doujins are out there? Many of which are completely clean and extend the 'Gundam Valhalla theme' to bring in say characters from Gundam 00 and elsewhere for fights... well Banned.

Any enforcement without complaint provision will ruin fandoms around the world. Wikis will shut down, fansites will shut down, homemade cosplay for cons will be shut down, cons themselves will be shut down. And not even studios can really do anything about it as they will have no say in the matter.

edited 13th Aug '15 2:48:50 PM by Memers

Right, but will enforcement without complaint actually happen?

No real choice to not to.

It doesn't matter. Fear of enforcement will take down far more "offenders" than actual enforcement ever will. There are a whole bunch of sites that shut their doors in the face of things like the DMCA, even when they weren't actively being targeted.

And clearly the writers of this law have someone in mind that they want to crush. I highly doubt cosplay and fanfiction is on that list, they're probably just collateral damage, but it's hard to say what is. Let's Play videos? AMVs? Pirated games? If this is all about bootleg movies, I'm gonna put a head-shaped hole in my wall.

There are little but significant number of h-doujinshi out there. Some of them were even sold at comiket, even. There are also h-doujinshi of other children's anime, albeit in even lesser quantities. Won't link it due to wiki policies, but you can find them in several doujinshi repositories maintained by westerners.

By the way, it is said that TPP will enforce US style censorship and ratings on other countries. Is that true?

edited 13th Aug '15 4:11:29 PM by murazrai

Its actually worse than US style, its going to change the way the US does it too completely for the worse.

See, the DMCA protected websites from having to shut down for fear of lawsuits just because some of their users might be copyright infringing. It prevents sites like You Tube from getting sued into the dirt every time somebody uploads an episode of Two And A Half Men. The need to issue takedown notices creates a "caring" barrier, where people who don't care as much, don't bother.

For instance, Let's Plays were and remain in a legal limbo, but most companies don't care.

And then the question of enforcement comes up. Is the overstretched and underfunded FBI going to take agents off of serious piracy cases so that they can go slap cuffs on every site peddling fan content? And most of these sites slide by on marginal legality anyway.

Do the feds even handle piracy? Digital piracy is a civil issue, not a criminal one. I'm pretty sure looking for infringing content is entirely handled by company lawyers.

And concerning doujins, I'm pretty sure they're not quite as legally dubious as people say, considering only american copyright law covers more than just the 'text' of a work. Well, I'm pretty sure that's the case, anyway. But the general public generally assumes copyright worldwide covers everything about a work, and most people don't want to fight a legal battle against corporations.

edited 13th Aug '15 10:03:55 PM by Cronosonic

Uploading videos for streaming sites is illegal. There is still a proliferation of them. Fear of enforcement is insufficient.

I agree, it seems like quite a minor aspect comparatively.

edited 13th Aug '15 11:13:07 PM by editerguy

Even if the artist/network is the one uploading the video?^note  And occasionally, yes, even those have been removed

Yes, unless they are the copyright holder.

I meant uploading videos for which you don't own the copyright. I typed too fast and missed that.

edited 14th Aug '15 3:44:01 AM by editerguy

The feds can handle piracy when someone stops acting in good faith, e.g. is clearly abusing their "safe harbor" priveleges under the DMCA. The Feds shut down Megaupload (and are STILL trying to get their hands on Kim Dotcom, but New Zealand isn't having it) because they had essentially made their takedown system fradulent by having the file linked to multiple urls, so a takedown notice would be complied with by merely cutting off one of many access points to a file instead of getting rid of the file, making it from a civil point into a criminal one.

There was a gap where Megaupload had been for awhile, but the internet filled up their niche pretty quickly. Enforcement of these kinds of laws is limited because of how numerous violators are. Prosecutors can pick a few choice violators to 'make an example' of and scare off others, but they can't get everyone.

The final bits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal are reached. The question is: Will Congress pass it?

And will anyone else sign it?

The text is still being kept secret right? It sounds like very doom and gloom worthy news still though.

edited 5th Oct '15 7:18:07 AM by Memers

Well, this might be the case where the crazies can actually save the world, by rejecting it just to spite Obama.

But the plutocrat-backed ones may obey their corporate overlords instead.

Thing is, it's way too late for congress to actually pass anything of substance before the election, especially since anti-TPP opposition is gradually mounting on both sides. And with a certain speaker of the house no longer in charge by the time it comes to a vote, I doubt there's anyone who can replace him who can actually rally enough votes to pass it anyway, especially not without the Democrats, who are still staunchly opposed and are basically responsible for nearly killing fast-track legislation.

Countries want to legislate away their ability to control their currencies?

Are they insane?

Hello!

Yours,
Europe.

edited 5th Oct '15 12:18:29 PM by BestOf

Quite. Like the Euro?