[wplug] Full Text of TPP released!

[Brian Sammon]

On Sun, 08 Nov 2015 20:41:12 -0500
John Lewis <oflameo2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Another TPP WTF!
> 
> TPP Banning Copyleft!
> 
> https://boingboing.net/2015/11/06/tpp-will-ban-rules-that-requir.html

The part of the TPP quoted by boingboing says:
	No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to, source code of
	software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition for the
	import, distribution, sale or use of such software, or of
	products containing such software, in its territory. 

Now I interpreted "Party" to mean specifically "country" or "nation".
Based on that, I think this clause says something like:
	The US (or any country) may not pass a law that says "It is illegal to
	sell closed-source car-driving software to Americans"
I don't think this clause prohibits
  Foreign businesses selling open-source (or copyleft) software in America
  An American company including in a contract with a foreign supplier, a clause
    requiring the use of copyleft software.
  Part of the American gov't (or an agency) having such a clause in a foreign
    supplier contract.

However I'm not a law geek, and I've made the (perhaps foolish) assumption that common sense could be used in reading this stuff.  I'd love to hear from any law geeks who read this list.

If my reading is correct, it seems like while this is still a negative thing, it's nowhere near as bad as it may seem at first glance.

This is (nearly?) the first time I've read any of of Cory Doctorow's writing, and the fact that I find myself disagreeing with him on the terribleness of this part of the treaty makes me wonder.