...[W]hat is becoming quite clear is that each new agreement seeks to use existing treaties as a kind of bare minimum, and then to apply the copyright and patent ratchets to push for even more. Indeed, it is striking how all these treaties are based on the unspoken assumption that intellectual monopolies will only ever be strengthened: there's never any question of giving more rights to users...The constant extension of copyright terms and patent reach is nothing less than an enclosure of the commons of ideas; agreements like ACTA and TPP are not abstractly adding to something, but taking away – from you and me...This is why even here on the other side of the globe we must be gravely concerned by developments like TPP: if we don't raise awareness of the threats it poses to an intellectual commons that is universal and not just limited to the Pacific basin, and help people fight against it in the countries involved, we will surely find ourselves confronting very similar proposals in a few years' time, and with the battle already half lost.