Re: TPP 14.17

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Glenn McGrath <glenn.l.mcgrath@gmail.com> writes:

> Ok, thanks, i think i see; there is layer of abstraction.
>
> The country can not requiring the transfer of source code,
> The country can allow a person to require the transfer of source code.

Well, if you broaden “a person” to include any entity *except* a state,
then yes.

In other words: Think like a transnational corporation lobbying the TPP
negotiators, and this distinction makes much more sense.

Corporations have no interest in treaties that will restrict them in any
way; so the TPP is not designed to have that effect. Corporations are
not parties to the treaty; states are.

The wording is specifically that *parties to the treaty* (which includes
no corporation) are restricted in the terms they can enforce.
Corporations, meanwhile, can continue restricting people as much as they
could before.

> I imagine high priced lawyers will disagree.

That is no doubt true.

-- 
 \       “The future always arrives too fast, and in the wrong order.” |
  `\                                                    —Alvin Toffler |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney