4 ms·

The constitution, in Article II Section 2, gives the president the power to make treaties, but two-thirds of the Senate has to approve the treaty. I don't see h

The constitution, in Article II Section 2, gives the president the power to make treaties, but two-thirds of the Senate has to approve the treaty. I don't see how they can vote on it if they can't see it. (Even if they don't tend to read what they vote on, they have to be _able_ to read it.) I suppose the entire Senate could be sworn to secrecy, along with their aides who do most of their reading for them, but I'm sure a bunch of them will object to that and vote no. And even if they don't, sooner or later the law has to be made public so it can be enforced, so any senators who vote for it will be held accountable. (To the extent they're ever held accountable for their votes.) So this may be classified now, but I don't see how it can remain that way if it's going to become a treaty. It'd have to become a classified executive order that's not subject to congressional approval. That may not satisfy whoever is pushing for a full-fledged treaty, though.

wmf 17y ago
I assume that the final treaty would have to be public, which raises the obvious question of why the drafts should be secret. Perhaps the media industry lobbyists don't want to be embarrassed by any proposed copyfascist terms that end up getting dropped from the final version. Or perhaps the negotiations are secret to prevent people from linking each treaty provision back to the company that proposed it (collective deniability).
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  If you have forewarning you can prepare a defence. If they spring it on you it can be voted in before people have managed to be informed about the content and repercussions. I'm going to guess the normal news sources aren't exactly going to go out their way to tell us how their parent companies want to steal from the public domain that which should already have been released and to worsen the copyright deal still further for new works that are created.
- jswinghammer 17y ago
  I believe there are laws enforced today around air travel that are not public. I believe the law that says you need ID to travel is not public.
hristov 17y ago
They will eventually make it public (probably right before it gets voted on). However, at that point the treaty will already be negotiated and it will be presented as done deal. There will be a lot of pressure on senators to vote on it and there will not be enough time for an opposition to coalesce, people that are affected will not have enough time to realize they are affected and to organize an opposition.

wmf 17y ago

I assume that the final treaty would have to be public, which raises the obvious question of why the drafts should be secret. Perhaps the media industry lobbyists don't want to be embarrassed by any proposed copyfascist terms that end up getting dropped from the final version. Or perhaps the negotiations are secret to prevent people from linking each treaty provision back to the company that proposed it (collective deniability).

pbhjpbhj 17y ago
If you have forewarning you can prepare a defence. If they spring it on you it can be voted in before people have managed to be informed about the content and repercussions. I'm going to guess the normal news sources aren't exactly going to go out their way to tell us how their parent companies want to steal from the public domain that which should already have been released and to worsen the copyright deal still further for new works that are created.
jswinghammer 17y ago
I believe there are laws enforced today around air travel that are not public. I believe the law that says you need ID to travel is not public.

hristov 17y ago

They will eventually make it public (probably right before it gets voted on). However, at that point the treaty will already be negotiated and it will be presented as done deal. There will be a lot of pressure on senators to vote on it and there will not be enough time for an opposition to coalesce, people that are affected will not have enough time to realize they are affected and to organize an opposition.