You may recall that the indefatigable Professor Michael Geist kept us informed around ACTA, the supposedly secret treaty that was the US's first attempt to impose a restrictive copyright regime overseas. Well, hat tip to him again, as Friday he posted a warning on the latest attempt by the US to export Cartel Jihad.

This round goes under the innocuous-sounding name of Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. But what this treaty contains is far from innocuous - it's a blueprint for replicating every lock, control, takedown, and prohibition in US intellectual property law into the legal systems of countries around the Pacific rim. It attempts to turn ISPs into copyright cops, and to tell other countries what they can and cannot issue patents on. As Geist says: "The U.S. plan is everything it wanted in ACTA but didn't get."

Finally, I couldn't resist stealing the image on this entry from l@w.geek.nz, a blog by Rick Shera who is himself a IP/Internet lawyer in New Zealand. He has a bullet-pointed post discussing this from the point of view of someone on the receiving end of this export as well as a Scribd include so you can read the original for yourself.