Antigua Looks Closer To Legal "Piracy" of US-Copyrighted Works 327
Mark Gibbs writes "Shiver me timbers: Antigua and Barbuda's 'WTO Remedies Implementation Committee', is said to be recommending the establishment by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda of a statutory body to own, manage and operate the ultimate platform to be created for the monetisation or other exploitation of the suspension of American intellectual property rights authorised earlier this year by the WTO ... Additionally, an announcement regarding the opening of tenders for private sector participation in the operating of the platform should be announced shortly. Arghhh ... matey!" See also this Slashdot post (from 2007) for some background.
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Copyright haven, eh? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Public domain (Score:5, Informative)
Very true. And not just foreign interests either. Look at the history of the American film industry who, in the space of ~2 years, moved en mass from New York & New Jersey to Hollywood, at least partially to get as far away as possible from Edison and the heavies he sent out to threaten filmmakers & 'confiscate' cameras - all in the name of patents & intellectual property.
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:5, Informative)
Are you familiar with the phrase "proportionality"?
Yep, and I think if anything the WTO has been too gentle with the US. Our violation of our agreements has cost Antiqua and Barbudos ~$1B per year, and the WTO has only authorized them to make $21M per year from ignoring their agreement to honor our copyrights.
It's not as though the US seriously harmed Antigua by banning online gambling.
You clearly didn't RTFA.
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:5, Informative)
The Slashdotter was Sloppy [slashdot.org].
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:5, Informative)
They are saying "repeal this law we don't like, or else we'll inflict as much damage as we possibly can on your economy". That's bad. If they want to play that game, we need to respond in kind.
The US already responded in kind. The US is blocking Antigua businesses from exporting to the US, so Antigua (by the treaty the US signed), is lawful in ignoring US law on Antigua soil. The only one trying to force anything on anyone else is the US.
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:4, Informative)
The GDP of las vegas.. Is almost 100 billion a year. (http://www.mybudget360.com/gambling-economy-nevada-casinos-state-budget-revenues/ )
So yes. They could MORE THAN double their GDP by allowing americans to gamble there. Much more. Potentially several hundred % more.
And thats just one city that allows gambling. The US has a couple of those.
Antigua got the shaft. And the WTO noticed and agreed.
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't matter that the US's internal laws trump its treaty obligations as far as the US is concerned.
As far as the rest of the world is concerned that's the US's problem and it's up to them to deal with it.
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, the US agreed to be bound by WTO agreements. It's violating those agreements and so, as a result, the financial harm that Antigua is suffering is to be compensated by allowing Antigua to violate some of the other conditions Antigua agreed to as part of the WTO.
The US can opt out of the WTO, nobody can stop them, but then Antigua doesn't need to get the WTO agreement to sell US copyrights because the WTO will no longer care about it. The US won't be in violation of WTO agreements because it's not part of the WTO treaty. Antigua won't be violating WTO agreements because the US is not part of the WTO.
Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score:5, Informative)
Lol, you seem convinced that by signing a treaty we signed away our rights to legislate within our borders. We didn't, I promise you.
Of course you didn't. What you did sign away was the right, except in certain restricted conditions, to treat foreign companies differently to domestic ones.
You can ban gambling, you can ban alcohol, hell, you can ban guns if you want to, the rest of the world thinks you ought to.
What you can't do is say "only American companies can sell guns to Americans"
Do countries try to push the boundaries, you bet, there are and have been numerous complaints to the WTO about the way China restricts foreign access to its internal markets. But China at least has the nonce to make it a borderline difficult case to prove.
The US is engaged in blatant protectionism - and the WTO doesn't allow protectionism.