Opponents have also argued that TPP represents little more than a giveaway to large corporations; its intellectual-property measures, in particular, have been subject to scrutiny (in part because portions of the relevant sections of the deal have been made public by Wikileaks).
Some opponents of website blocking have seized upon reports of governments misusing intellectual property enforcement measures for unrelated means, such as the Russian police raid on advocacy groups and opposition newspapers in the name of searching for pirated software.
The implementation of excessive and over-broad intellectual property protection measures would strangle the freedom and innovation essential to growth of the Internet.
Over time, tensions between the United States and China have shifted from the exchange rate to other issues, like intellectual property rights and measures that bar American companies from access to the Chinese market.
Chen Deming, the commerce minister in China, recently promised to strengthen protection of American intellectual property, but those measures are also likely to expedite the development of Chinese invention and entertainment exports.
Brazil, India and Thailand, among other countries, are on the lists for insufficient protection for intellectual property — even though their measures are fully within international trade law.
Australia wants exemptions from intellectual property provisions for "any measures comprising or related to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Medicare Benefits Scheme, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator".
If these firms failed to act within five days, they could then be sued.To music and film executives, who want to defend their intellectual property from theft, such measures are the last line of defence against an explosion of pirated content, much of it carried on foreign sites.
"The unauthorized access [from attacks] could serve as a platform for law enforcement, intellectual property theft, or anticorruption measures that could ultimately erode the competitive advantage of targeted organizations," Carr wrote.
In response, these companies have sought to impose aggressive patenting and intellectual property standards in India, measures that would grant the firms monopoly pricing power over new drugs and lock out generics producers.
