Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The TPP and termination rights

The TPP’s Attack on Termination Rights?  Provocative post on EFF’s blog.  Of course we will be told that the TPP doesn’t require changes in domestic law (it just bars many improvements, something that ought to be notable given that Washington seems to be gearing up for real copyright reform).  But (a) given the secrecy, I’d rather verify than just trust, (b) the US has ignored its international commitments in IP for years when it suits domestic political forces, but doesn’t extend the same consideration to others, so I can absolutely believe we’d push a rule that we’d be immediately violating.  (See also Margot Kaminski’s excellent work on US positions that unduly constrain and even conflict with US law, such as Kirtsaeng, presented in this forthcoming article.)  But maybe the TPP’s proposed language allows restrictions on transfers like our current termination rules.  Maybe we’ll eventually find out. 

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