White Hat Hackers Would Have Their Devices Destroyed Under the TPP
motherboard.vice.com
motherboard.vice.com
The TPP is not itself a law. It's a meta-law, which commits its signatories to enact actual enforceable laws based on the framework established in the treaty.
No device can be destroyed "under the TPP". The TPP instead demands that its signatories enact laws so that they have a judicial process whose remedies can potentially include the destruction of devices. The TPP hasn't even been ratified yet, let alone enabled by law.
This seems like hair-splitting, but I don't think it is. I think the question of what impact TPP will have on security research depends entirely on what the enabling laws for the TPP look like in each country. In the US, our laws already cordon off security and interoperability research from anti-circumvention enforcement.
The TPP itself also acknowledges non-infringing use. First, note that the Vice article selectively quotes the leaked TPP text, which does not demand destruction of "anti-circumvention devices", but rather of devices engaged in prohibited activity. The TPP does not demand a prohibition on security research. Further, the TPP earlier (QQ.G.17) binds each party to balance IP law with fair use for criticism, comment, and research.
I'm not arguing that the TPP IP law is going to be a good thing for security research. It probably won't be (at least, not outside the US). But it's too early to know what it's impact is going to be, and certainly to early to say that it's going to result in the confiscation of security researcher laptops.
Public debate precedes and informs whether a government will sign the TPP. If a government signs the TPP, public debate will precede and inform how a government chooses to implement exclusions which are permitted by the TPP.
The US has entered a 90-day window for public debate, 60 days of which will include access to the official text. http://i.imgur.com/k6Je0Dz.png . Hundreds of industry lobbyists have had access and input to the TPP text for years.
Journalists and academics now have a short time window to try and understand possible interpretations of the TPP text. This will be like reading source code without Git history or comments.
> But it's too early to know what it's impact is going to be.
When would be a good time for public debate?
Understanding how some software artifact works so you can discover flaws in its implementation does not usually require circumventing DRM. This is what I suspect the author of the Vice article does not understand.
Below is what the EFF had to say about this aspect of the recently leaked TPP doc.
"One of the scariest parts of the TPP is that not only can you be made liable to fines and criminal penalties, but that any materials and implements used in the creation of infringing copies can also be destroyed (QQ.H.4(12)). The same applies to devices and products used for circumventing DRM or removing rights management information (QQ.H.4(17)). Because multi-use devices such as computers are used for a diverse range of purposes, this is once again a disproportionate penalty. This could lead to a family's home computer becoming seized simply because of its use in sharing files online, or for ripping Blu-Ray movies to a media center."
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/final-leaked-tpp-text-...
How long does this process take? Need to know if I should start buying tons of generic medicines right now.
70 comments, TPP final negotiated text – IP chapter, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10359604
150 comments, The Final Leaked TPP Text Is All That We Feared, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10363500
edit: the FCC have always had that power over pirate radio - maybe that's the new metaphor that's going to be pushed.
Destroy that bitches!
All they are doing is forcing white to go black.
When everything is illegal everyone is a criminal.
I pay for mine with Bitcoin.
If this treaty and its ilk come to pass, I expect we'll see a massive flourishing of digital grey markets, with a heavy focus on anonymity.