IFLA and other library organisations express concern about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Between July 2-10 in San Diego, United States, negotiators from nine countries are meeting in to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The TPPA is a multilateral trade agreement between Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Singapore, covering all aspects of commercial relations between the countries. Canada and Mexico have recently been invited to join the negotiations. IFLA, along with organisations representing the library community in some of the countries participating in the TPPA, is concerned that the TPPA's extensive intellectual property chapter does not reflect the balance necessary to protect the public domain and the ways in which society may access and use content. Presently, exceptions to copyright protection are noticeably absent from leaked drafts of this 'gold standard' IP agreement for the 21st century