Look, this trade deal will bring on a host of legal changes that will make our lives worse. In the Intellectual Property area, it looks like we will end up with new laws that will sacrifice our rights for those of the big global copyright holders.

And bye-bye multi-region DVD players, I bet.

I think you and I need to work on our Senators to make sure the enabling legislation does not get through our senate.

Here’s a quote from the informative press release from Electronic Frontiers Australia:

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today expressed dismay about the intellectual property clauses of the recently announced Free Trade Agreement with the United States of America, saying they would leave average Australians at the mercy of legal action from multinational media companies, and represent a massive step backwards for Australian Intellectual Property law.

“The United States has one of the worst systems of intellectual property laws in the world.” said EFA board member Dale Clapperton. “Their Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been widely condemned by civil liberties and users groups throughout the world, and now the Howard government has committed itself to implementing its worst, most insidious provisions.”