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The extraordinarily detailed information on negotiating positions released by WikiLeaks shows Australia repeatedly backing the interests of the US against the objections of countries including Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam on questions involving intellectual property. Australia is often the only one of the 12 parties to the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations to do so……..

In 2005 the High Court ruled that it was legal for Australians to use so-called ”mod chips” to bypass the copy-protection measures in Sony Playstations. In June this year a committee made up of both sides of Parliament unanimously recommended Australia amend its copyright law to put beyond doubt ”consumers’ rights to circumvent technological protection measures that control geographic market segmentation”. In other words, Australians would be completely free to modify their DVD machines to play discs made for use anywhere in the world. And to defeat the technologies that allow US giants such as Amazon and Apple to geographically segment their markets and charge Australians more than almost anyone else.

Yet in closed-door negotiations so secret the media was excluded from Australian briefings on their progress, Canberra has backed the US in trying to criminalise such measures. An amendment proposed by Canada and Singapore to the effect that it is legal to sell and import devices whose sole purpose is to defeat region coding, does not list Australia among its backers.

Canada and seven other countries want to make it clear that internet providers such as Australia’s iiNet cannot be held legally responsible for copyright infringement on their networks. In 2012 iiNet went to the High Court to enforce that right. But Australia and the US are listed in the negotiating document as opposing it…….

The WikiLeaks release comes as developments in the US put the Trans Pacific Partnership under a cloud. More than 20 Republican Congressmen have written to President Barack Obama threatening to withdrawing the ”fast track” negotiating authority that allows him to close a deal. An influential group of Democrats is about to do the same.  http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-backs-the-us-at-every-turn-against-its-own-consumers-20131113-2xh0p.html#ixzz2kgk1SlcQ