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by andrewmutz 3878 days ago
Just to agree with this point and elaborate: when the text uses the word "party" it refers to a nation signing the treaty, and not people.

So when it says "No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to, source code of software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition for the import, distribution, sale or use of such software, or of products containing such software, in its territory," Party refers to a government.

1 comments

In a State where the GPL is enforceable would it be a violation of the TPP to require that a foreign company comply with the GPL and release the source code? I think that's the $1,000,000 question.
As I understand it: a government can not say to a foreign company "we won't buy your software / won't allow your product in our market unless you give us the source code" and that's it. It has nothing to do with GPL, possibly with the exception that writing "the provided software shall be released under GPL license" into government-sponsored bids would be illegal as it basically forces a company to provide the source code as a requirement to do business.
No, because that's just enforcing a private contract.