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Australia considers a free trade agreement
The United States and Australia recently negotiated a trade agreement
which, like many US-driven agreements these days, requires Australia to
follow America's lead on numerous intellectual property issues. In
particular, the agreement forces the adoption of software patents and DMCA-like copyright
laws. Needless to say, free software advocates have been concerned about
this agreement; they have also been doing something about it.
On May 17, The Australian Senate Select Committee on the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the US heard testimony on the effects that the agreement would have. The transcript is available as a 700KB PDF file. Included therein are several pages of testimony from kernel hacker Rusty Russell, representing Linux Australia.
Open source is particularly important to Australia because we are
good at it. We develop it, we distribute it, and our expertise
gives Australian business a competitive advantage over
international competitors--not just IT business but all businesses
that use IT. The Boston Consulting Group in a survey a few years
ago found that eight per cent of open source developers are in
Australia--hugely disproportionate to our population. We are in a
prime position to take advantage of the growth opportunities
provided by these projects especially the benefits of better, more
open infrastructure that open source provides. On the other hand,
the cost of chilling competition in this area will affect us
greatly now and we will lament the loss of our lead in years to
come.
Unfortunately, there is no picture of Rusty in his suit and tie. Many other witnesses appeared, including representatives of Electronic Frontiers Australia, and the Australian Digital Alliance. Whether this testimony will have an effect on the eventual ratification of this treaty is to be seen; the fact that these issues were heard in this forum is a good start, however. (Thanks to Michael Neuling for the transcript pointer). (Log in to post comments)
Australia considers a free trade agreement Posted May 20, 2004 4:15 UTC (Thu) by danshearer (guest, #18686) [Link] I'm one of the masses who stands to lose. Here's some clarifications on the topic.The ratification of the treaty is largely on the US side. Only those chunks of the FTA which require changes in existing Australian laws need to be voted on in Australia, because by a wierd piece of chicanery treaties do not have to be voted on in parliament. It is true that the copyright and (parts of?) the circumvention stuff will have to be voted on. However I was told when visting parliament house in Canberra that good strategy would be for the government to package other things which don't have to be voted on -- say chemicals or grass seeds -- in the same bill. This may mean that strong lobbying by a chemical or grass seed company gives Australia the DMCA. Linux Australia has done some very good work at http://www.linux.org.au/fta/ . Responding to this isn't only for Australians. If you are from some other country and believe you can present a strong case do please get in contact with the right people. As well as the option of getting on a plane, written and video submissions will work especially in conjunction with locals who can help with logistics and scheduling. There's plenty of willing locals, Linux Australia is an obvious contact point but there are plenty of others (I'm dan@shearer.org.) /Dan
Slides from rusty's talk Posted May 20, 2004 4:36 UTC (Thu) by mbp (guest, #2737) [Link] Here are my notes from the committee hearing, and a link to the slides we used. You should read them along with rusty's transcript.
Political context... Posted May 22, 2004 7:37 UTC (Sat) by goonie (guest, #4252) [Link] or the benefit of the mostly American readers of this board, some political context and basic primers on the Australian political system are probably called for.Australia has a parliamentary system of government, with two houses of parliament. All legislation, to pass, has to get a majority in both houses. The government is the party or coalition that has the majority in the lower house. Australia's two major parties are extremely well-disciplined; "crossing the floor" is very rare, unlike the United States. The lower house is therefore a tool of the governing party, so the legislation required to implement the FTA will go through the lower house. The real battle, however, will be in the Senate, where the balance of power is held by a motley collection of various shades of left-wingers and some rural moral conservatives. The electoral system for the Senate is frankly quite odd and some of them are not standing for reelection, so somm aren't really susceptible to electoral pressure. Predicting which way they will vote on this kind of issue, particularly the morals campaigners, is incredibly difficult; there's little publicly-discernable rhyme or reason to it. However, they aren't known as free-traders, so absent any electoral bribes their natural inclination will be to vote against these bills. So that leaves the major opposition party, Labor. They are known to be a little more IT-savvy than the government, and are probably reasonably sympathetic to the kind of arguments against software patents, the DMCA, and copyright term extensions. However, they will ultimately make their decision on the FTA as a whole based on the issues that resonate in the community, and, frankly, free software isn't one that resonates with the swinging voters in the marginal seats where the election will be decided. The issues that will largely decide the fate of the FTA in the Australian parliament are the overall economic benefits to Australia's primary and secondary industries, and the effects on drug prices. While services make up an ever-growing part of the Australian economy, the traditional industries of farming, mining, and heavy manufacturing still dominate the Australian political psyche. Most of the economic analysis done so far suggests that these industries will get little benefit, and overall the impact to both economies is minimal. The real kicker, the thing that is most likely to affect the adoption of the FTA, is the provisions that relate to medicine, which will nobble the ability of the Australian government to use its monopoly purchasing power to screw drug companies for better deals, and discourage the production and importatation of low-cost generic drugs once patents run out. In the end, I suspect Labor will come out against the FTA in its present form over these issues, and issues like free software will neither be here nor there. In any case, a federal election is in the air, and the whole debate could well be completely recast in a few months time.
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