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TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

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Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#2
"Party" here means party to the treaty, right? So, governments can't require source disclosure (except for critical infrastructure), but this specifically exempts contracts about such from this rule:

> [Nothing in this Article shall preclude] the inclusion or implementation of terms and conditions related to the provision of source code in commercially negotiated contracts

It seems like this wouldn't affect licensing at all, given that licensing is supposedly a contract. Am I missing something?

Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#3
So in short, if I understand this correctly, the US government (and any other government party to the treaty) will for example be unable to insist that Volkswagen (or any other manufacturer) open source their future emissions control software (as a condition for regulatory compliance) ?

Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#4
These are rules for States. It has no bearing whatsoever on the GPL.

This prevents a country from forcing somebody like Microsoft or Apple to give up their source code for "inspection" in order to access their market. It also helps to prevent States from demanding and acquiring encryption or other private keys (there's a separate section that also explicitly forbids mandating backdoors be added).

Not everything in the TPP is bad.

Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#7
The "parties" of a treaty are governments. This has nothing to do with GPL. This is saying that a government can't say "you aren't allowed to sell software in the country of Frain as a non-Frainian unless you provide the source code for that product (whether to the end user or to the government)". They leave an exception for "critical infrastructure", because it was hard to argue that the government of Frain shouldn't be able to require that nuclear control software come with source code. Essentially, I don't see why this clause is concerning. It is clearly a form of pandering to the interests of software developers reliant on intellectual property rights, but only in a way that seems to me mostly about forcing capitalism on nation states that might disagree with its premise.

Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#8

So in short, if I understand this correctly, the US government (and any other government party to the treaty) will for example be unable to insist that Volkswagen (or any other manufacturer) open source their future emissions control software (as a condition for regulatory compliance) ?

Without a court order, at least.

Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#9
post #8

So in short, if I understand this correctly, the US government (and any other government party to the treaty) will for example be unable to insist that Volkswagen (or any other manufacturer) open source their future emissions control software (as a condition for regulatory compliance) ?

Without a court order, at least.

Wasn't there some notion of an international TPP court that could dispute nations' decisions?

Re: TPP banning requirements to transfer or access to source code of software

#10
post #4

These are rules for States. It has no bearing whatsoever on the GPL. This prevents a country from forcing somebody like Microsoft or Apple to give up their source code for "inspection" in order to access their market. It also helps to prevent States from demanding and acquiring encryption or other private keys (there's a separate section that also explicitly forbids mandating backdoors be added). Not everything in th…

Sounds pretty bad to me.
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