This does not bode well. I really hope somebody is able to stop this insanity from being ratified:

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"They just went and did it. They signed the TPP.

Out-of-touch Trade Ministers and bureaucrats just ignored millions of Internet users and signed the TPP at an Auckland casino.

And get this: New Zealand police were intimidatingly knocking on the doors of “known activists” demanding to know about any plans to protest the extreme censorship plan.

The deal may be signed, but they still need to ratify it for the TPP to become law. In some countries, the TPP could be ratified in a matter of months.

This means the final battle over the TPP starts right now — and we need to act fast to win the debate before powerful countries ratify."

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Source:
https://openmedia.org/en/tpp-was-just-signed-heres-our-plan-fight-back

Petition against the TPP:
https://act.openmedia.org/finalbattle

Edit,
Added petition link

I thought the TPP got shoved into another bill and was rushed through congress a month or two ago...

It's okay just focus on terrorism and how badly the economy is and all your worries over the TPP will be hidden away.

trudeau you little bastard what have you done!!!!, wait nvm i still dont know if canada signed or not

It's an international trade agreement - so we need to at least pretend other countries have a say in it.

Usually I avoid political threads for anything except for trolling, but...
What's the TPP? Could somebody explain it to me?

Google search is your friend. I'll do it for ya: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32498715 ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWHDPuDpay8

There's several videos explaining it, but currently easiest to access is this one on a playlist i'm watching for Super BunnyHop.

TPP is a much bigger thing than just the copyright stuff in it. there's a lot of stuff to deal with trade and not all of it is bad and there's so much of it that it differs on what's good and what's bad depending on the country you are in. then there's the copyright stuff. I guess TPP sounds much less threatening than SOPA or PIPA.

the copyright stuff in it going through has little to do with them being out of touch. hell, if they were so out of touch, they might have gone, hey! we can't sign this. doesn't anyone worry about this copyright stuff?

Less threatening? Maybe, but clauses in comments about ISP's believing you are not getting 'legit content' that they could send police and swat to your door to arrest you doesn't seem light to me.

Of course naturally i expect everyone to start using VPN's shortly and encrypting all channels of their communication with an outside server (who doesn't care about enforcing the TPP or other things) thus avoiding most of this altogether. If TOR uses SSL or encrypted communications all throughout, then everyone might be using them exclusively soon just to keep from being spied on constantly by the ISP's.

Hey now... as long is the shareholders (of any given mega-corporation) are happy. Right? From my standpoint, that is what this is about: making wealthy investors happy. They are the ones that fund the government, after all. {Correction: they are the ones who fund the politicians' campaigns; notable distinction.}

For the record, personally, as one who makes most of his money through investments, this probably will be a net positive to me. However, I do have to admit that this is why the Agreement has been fast tracked in the U.S.. One always has to be wary of 'secret' bills with bipartisan support, in my experience.

Yeah, I might be a little cynical. :P

I almost wonder if we will start seeing a repeat of the RIAA random suing where they started arresting grandparents and children for downloading a song, except in this case maybe it's getting ahold of old TV show episodes like The Munsters, or Fraggle Rock...

Or worse.. if you have a child and they download it on the main computer and you get arrested for it (since it's probably guilty til proven innocent).

Still, only time will tell what happens; Although there's strong hints that things get better after a while... but first i'm sure they will get worse.

One can hope.

That is often the case.

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Many of the regulations in the bill have dubious legality in the various nations taking part. It will be interesting (perhaps in the Chinese sense of the word) to witness the fallout if the bill is ratified.

I am a dyed-in-the-wool Libertarian. I like the free trade aspects of the bill, for the most part, but I am leery of the overarching regulations that have been added. Paradoxically, what is best for my wallet may not necessarily be what is best for my personal well being long-term.

Its sad that people were not causing as much of a backlash as SOPA received such a huge backlash.

I wonder if TTIP will get signed now since its just more or less the same thing.