Fair Deal Coalition logoUna coalición de organizaciones que representa una diversidad de intereses en todo el mundo se unió hoy para pedir un trato justo de la propiedad intelectual (PI) en el Acuerdo de la Asociación Trans-Pacífico (TPP).

El TPP es un acuerdo comercial que se está negociando entre Australia, Brunei, Canadá, Chile, Japón, Perú, Malasia, México, Nueva Zelanda, Singapur, Vietnam y Estados Unidos.

The consumer movement is trusted and respected for its role as an impartial watchdog, which allows it to fearlessly hold governments and businesses to account for infringing consumers' rights. But this trust and respect is a valuable commodity, and businesses would do anything to get a piece of it.

Jeremy Malcolm speaking, with Jane Kelsey, at TPP press conferenceThe 16^th round of the Trans-Pacific partnership negotiations is underway this week and next in Singapore, and Consumers International is participating actively – or at least, as actively as we can, given the closed nature of the negotiations. Only one day of the negotiations is officially open to the public, and all other events are independently stakeholder-organised.

AnonymousLast year's ITU WCIT conference inflamed the community's fears of the extension of intergovernmental control over the Internet. Whilst this fear was legitimate, an over-emphasis on the ITU can obscure the fact that the Internet is already controlled in undemocratic ways - often by governments, through both national and global processes, but also by corporate interests. It also obscures the fact that government action is sometimes necessary to uphold the rights of Internet users, just as government inaction can sometimes support their freedoms.