My name is Devan England. I'm a software developer who has been part of the Canadian software industry for over nine years.
I would like to start by thanking the committee for granting me this opportunity to speak today in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and to share my perspective on why it should not be ratified.
The TPP is a large agreement with many parts to it. It calls for changes to regulations that affect not only trade, but also things like environmental protections, pharmaceuticals and online privacy.
One of the areas that is of particular concern to me as a technologist is the section on intellectual property. For example, copyright terms in Canada generally last for the life of the author plus 50 years. The TPP would require increasing this term to the life of the author plus 70 years. The argument in favour of increasing the term is that it would encourage more innovation, but this is completely wrong.
Think about it. Would you be discouraged from writing a book because you would have exclusive rights to it for only 50 years after your death, instead of 70? Of course not. Changes like this do not benefit innovators of the present. They only benefit rights holders of long dead innovators of the past.
Cambridge University researcher Rufus Pollock has calculated the ideal copyright term to be around 14 years, period. This is the balance between incentivizing innovation by granting exclusivity and fielding further innovation by terminating it.