tpp – Courage Foundation

The European Parliament is currently considering a law that has the potential to inhibit European whistleblowers and the publications they work with. The proposed European Trade Secrets directive aims to prevent industrial espionage by enforcing protections for “trade secrets” across the Union.

Unfortunately, this proposed law has major ramifications for whistleblowers: companies would be able to restrict access to information they consider to be their trade secrets, exposing those who ‘misappropriate’ that information to civil or criminal penalties. It risks putting all potential truthtellers in the position of those whistleblowers in the banking industry who, like Rudolf Elmer, have been prosecuted relentlessly under national secrecy laws – as well as risking the newspapers that publish them too.

A Europe-wide campaign to #stoptradesecrets is being launched today with an open letter signed by journalists, activists and trade unionists from across the continent. Courage’s Director Sarah Harrison and WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange, who is a trustee of Courage, are among the first signatories of this letter, which has been published in Le Monde in France, Taz in Germany, El Pais in Spain and Ta Nea in Greece today.

Courage Director Sarah Harrison has also given an interview to Taz, explaining why the Directive is so problematic.

You can read the English and French versions of the open letter. The campaign website, which is also launched today, is here: http://stoptradesecrets.eu/

US President Barack Obama has issued an executive order authorising the Treasury Secretary to enact sanctions against those whom it deems to have “have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for” cyber-related crimes.

Reuters reports that even US lawmakers consider the order “surprisingly broad”, and investigative journalists are concerned about its wide-ranging scope.

The order criminalizes anyone who is “responsible for or complicit in, or [who has] engaged in, the receipt or use for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain, or by a commercial entity, outside the United States of trade secrets misappropriated through cyber-enabled means.”

Former DOJ lawyer Mark Rasch told Reuters, “Even denial-of-service attacks that knock websites offline with meaningless traffic, which can be orchestrated over the Internet for a few hundred dollars, could officially qualify for sanctions.” The PayPal 14 were imprisoned and fined heavily for denial-of-service attacks on PayPal in response to its freezing of WikiLeaks’ bank account, and President Obama has called Edward Snowden a “hacker”, so reporters and supporters wonder if this new order will affect donations to organizations like WikiLeaks and the Courage Foundation.

Investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler said that this order “could be used to target journalism abroad. Does WikiLeaks’ publication of secret Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations qualify? Does Guardian’s publication of contractors’ involvement in NSA hacking?”

Wheeler’s post notes many elements of the order that appear “ripe for abuse.” Questioning just how broadly the ‘material support’ interpretation goes, she said, “Does that include encryption providers? Does it include other privacy protections?”

In response to the possibility that donations to Edward Snowden’s defence fund could be criminalised, Reddit users criticized the order and sparked a surge in bitcoin donations to Edward Snowden’s defence fund. Courage has received over 200 transactions already this month, including a single donation of 8.49 bitcoin (over 2000 dollars).

Reddit AMA

Members of the Courage team, including trustee Julian Assange, acting director Sarah Harrison, and advisory board members Renata Avila, who is an internet rights lawyer, and Andy Muller-Maguhn, on the board of the Wau Holland Foundation, which collects donations for Snowden and Hammond on Courage’s behalf, will be participating in a Reddit AMA on Monday, 7pm EST / 11pm GMT. They’ll discuss Courage, ready to answer anything, including questions on the increase in BTC since the Executive Order.