Thursday, October 15, 2015
The landmark TPP deal allows a judicial review over violation of Digital Rights Management technologies and could lead to the destruction of your devices if found guilty.
Forget the good old days when the kids used to open up the electronics at their homes in quest of knowledge and sometimes even tweak the original to create a multi-purpose device. So, no more playing around with the gadgets, because if you are caught, your device would be seized and destroyed as per the recently signed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Wikileaks has released the official documents regarding the copyrights chapter which forbids anyone to circumvent the copyright and product infringement laws and thereby make changes in the original devices or proprietary technology (software/hardware) for any purpose. Such are called DRM or Digital Rights Management technologies.
Well, DRM was always there but what comes new with the TPP is that judicial authorities would have the authority to confiscate and order the destruction of such devices and products found to be involved in any such DRM violation.
TPP is touted as the 21st-century landmark for trade liberalization and hog around 40% of the world’s economy and had been pushed aggressively since many years. The agreement has already come under fire for favoring the corporates and stifling the rights of consumers. Similar penal laws have been adjudicated against the free-flowing information on Internet, again with an intent to smother small businesses and create a corporate monopoly.
Worst affected by these new developments will be the white-hat hackers as bypassing the manufacturer’s exclusive system and finding the zero-day vulnerabilities is their job. Even individuals who want to improvise their devices are prohibited. As in the case of the Internet copyright violations, the punishment is from a monetary fine to a term in jail.
Wikileaks has also the leaked the device-destroying proposal in the TPP back in 2014 as well. After a long slumber, the whistle blowing forum has revived itself and lately has been crowdfunding to offer bounty in order to get confidential government documents such as this one and the US bombings in Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan few days back.
