I had a comment posted in yesterday’s Crikey. It’s not necessarily all that illuminating, although it’s probably as informative as the piece I’m responding to. Some members of the IPA are at least both interesting and informative, even if I disagree with pretty much everything that they write.  Others are perhaps of less value.

Alister Air writes: Re. “Tobacco debate: plain packaging anything but plain sailing” (yesterday, item 12). It’s delightful to see serial lightweight Tim Wilson gracing the inboxes of Crikey subscribers again.

In between juvenile name-calling and the non-disclosure of the IPA’s relationship with tobacco companies, Wilson tries to make an actual point; that article 20 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights may be breached. Wilson’s interpretation of the relevant section seems unnecessarily heroic, as he cherry-picks the elements he believes supports his argument, and disregards the rest.

The biggest problem, however, is that Wilson presents no reason why we should believe what he writes. Mark Davison does IP law for a living, and has published and teaches in the field. Tim Wilson works for a lobby group. If I were Simon Chapman, I know who’s advice I’d be taking.

It’s possible I was a little harsh.