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TTIP's "Science-based" Assault on Democracy Begins 28 Jul 2013 | 02:40 pm
Last month I predicted that one of the main tropes that would be used in the TAFTA/TTIP negotiations would by that of "science-based" policy. As I pointed out then, this is a trick, since the "science...
Why has Monsanto "Quit" Europe? The Answer is ISDS in TAFTA/TTIP 21 Jul 2013 | 02:15 pm
The battle to bring GM food to Europe has been fiercely fought for years. Most assumed it would be continue to rage for many more. Which makes this recent announcement extremely surprising: The worl...
OxyContin And The Art Of 'Evergreening' 21 Jul 2013 | 01:26 am
A few weeks back, we wrote about the Indian Supreme Court's rejection of Novartis's attempt to use "evergreening" to prolong its patent on Gleevec, sold as Glivec in India. That term refers to the tri...
No, The UK Did Not Just Abolish Copyright, Despite What Photographers Seem To Think 21 Jul 2013 | 01:21 am
The photographers are freaking out again. After last year's excitement with Instagram's changes to its terms of service, now it's the UK's Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (ERR) Act that's getting peo...
What New-Style Trade Agreements Are Really About (Hint: It's Not Trade) 21 Jul 2013 | 01:16 am
Given the massive impact that new-style trade agreements like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP are likely to have on the lives of hundreds of millions of people, it's surprising how few members of the public know a...
Has Russia's VKontakte Social Network Betrayed Its Users? Or Is It Under Attack For Defending Them? 21 Jul 2013 | 01:12 am
We last wrote about the Russian social network site VKontakte, often called "The Facebook of Russia," a year ago. Since then, lots of bad stuff has been happening in Russia as a part of clampdown on o...
McAfee Patents System To 'Detect And Prevent Illegal Consumption Of Content On The Internet' 21 Jul 2013 | 01:07 am
As a post on the French site Numerama reminds us (original in French), the department responsible for implementing the three-strikes plan known as HADOPI was also supposed to provide Internet users wi...
US Demands Transparency Everywhere -- But Only From Everyone Else 21 Jul 2013 | 01:03 am
Techdirt has written about the Special 301 report many times, but that's not the only US government publication putting other countries on the naughty step. Another is the less well-known National Tra...
After Muzzling Librarians And Scientists, Now Canada Starts Making It Difficult For Citizens To Express Their Views 21 Jul 2013 | 01:01 am
Last month, Techdirt wrote about the requirement for librarians employed by the Canadian government to self-censor their opinions, even in private. This came in the wake of similar restrictions being ...
UK 'Snooper's Charter' Torn Up; Now What? 21 Jul 2013 | 12:51 am
Since the UK government published the draft version of its Communications Data Bill -- better known as the "snooper's charter" -- with plans to store data about every British citizen's emails, mobile ...
