The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) could lead to widespread internet censorship as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are allowed to remove content without any sort of repercussions, warned Pakatan Harapan lawmakers today.

At a press conference, Wong Chen (PKR-Kelana Jaya) and Hatta Ramli pointed out that the intellectual property chapter of TPPA would allow corporations to infringe netizens' rights.

"The revealing of the TPPA has confirmed our worst fears. Under the TPPA, corporate interests will supersede user rights," they said at the Parliament lobby.

The ISPs would will act as "internet police" under Chapter 18 of the TPPA as they have legal rights to remove content deemed copyrighted.

"Under the Copyright Act 2012, ISPs are not required to remove or disable access to the infringing material unless they receive notification from the copyright owners," they said.

"It is explicitly stated that ISPs are not liable in the event where they wrongly take down content that does not infringe copyright law," they noted.

"The TPPA also extends the duration of copyright protection from 50 years after the creator's death (Malaysian law) to 70 years," they said.

"This provision would prevent creators and artists from accessing, remixing or recreating existing material for an unnecessarily long periods of time," they added.

This only benefits large American entertainment companies who will receive a windfall in royalties from consumers for an additional 20 years, they claimed.

"The TPPA has rewritten the rules of the Internet as its provisions were negotiated behind closed doors and completely to the advantage of corporations.

"This TPPA will not advance the needs of innovators, creators and educators in the country but instead allow the copyright holders to win big," they said.

Massive documentation

The government is scheduled to table and debate the TPPA during a special Parliament sitting in January.

Wong urged International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed to come out with the details on the special sitting so lawmakers can be better prepared in light of 6,000 pages of TPPA documents released.

"The minister should let us know as soon as possible and be fair to parliamentarians as there are 6,000 pages (of TPPA documentation)," he said.

"We would also like to know the cost benefit reports the government had taken a long time to prepare. With due respect to Mustapa, he promised (to release) them since December last year," he said.