Tyee: TPP Leaks Reveal Blows to Creative Freedom: Filmmaker

TPP will hurt our creative fredom in ways you can't image. Here's a filmmaker's acount of what it would mean for artists and creators around the globe. Let's stop this censoring deal at StoptheSecrecy.net Article by Brett Gaylor for the Tyee Most people's experience with copyright begins and ends with the FBI warnings that play before movies on a DVD. 

But for those who make a living from creative work, copyright is an everyday reality. It's both a mechanism to help a creator get paid, and a framework that allows them to include the creativity of others within their own work.In the digital age, being creative is increasingly an act of copying -- whether that is sampling music, quoting an article in an online publication, or including a photo or moving image in a YouTube video.

There must be a balance between the need to compensate creators for their work, and the ability to copy, reference, and build on others' works. Sadly, the current trend is towards rules that lock up works of art and stifle independent creators' output. 

This trend is most visible in the ongoing negotiations for a massive 12-country trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Big media conglomerates in the U.S. have been applying heavy pressure behind closed doors to export heavy-handed American copyright rules as part of the TPP. Leaks show their efforts have been largely successful.