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Piracy United States Politics

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.
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Antigua Looks Closer To Legal "Piracy" of US-Copyrighted Works

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  • by skywire ( 469351 ) * on Friday October 25, 2013 @10:03PM (#45242439)

    if Google would slip them all those books.

  • Public domain (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @10:14PM (#45242501)

    Sounds less like 'piracy', and more like early America, where our forebears had little stake in maintaining the seemingly unjust control of foreign interests, but much interest in creating a large body of works that the public could use to generate culture in this new world.

    I'm sure there were a lot of folks an ocean away decrying the 'free ride' those Americans were taking then too - but those resources had some heavy work to do, and it would rightly seem absurd at the to pay several times the cost of production for a 'licensed' book at the end of the day. What parts of culture we were able to 'steal' helped make us diverse and strong - and I don't blame any developing nation for wanting to repeat that, either officially, or unofficially like most nations.

    Ryan Fenton

    • Re:Public domain (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25, 2013 @10:37PM (#45242605)

      US property laws remind me of a novice, power-mad AD&D DM. After too many rules about what players can do and too many "whups, didn't search for that piece of glass, ahaha, party dead, roll up new characters", the rest of the people in the game just shrugged, picked up their dice and paper, and went elsewhere.

      Fair IP laws are one thing. However, when it gets to the point where one has to fight IP law to publish/sell anything new, where only the largest companies can produce anything, it is no wonder why some countries just give a middle finger and go about their business.

      The Snowden event is a watershed. Before that, people cooperated with the US to ensure that Mickey Mouse stays well protected. However, with the roaring anti-US sentiment kept stoked at an extreme with the daily reports from the Guardian, it is no wonder why other nations have stopped playing ball.

    • Re:Public domain (Score:5, Informative)

      by NoMaster ( 142776 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @10:54PM (#45242689) Homepage Journal

      Sounds less like 'piracy', and more like early America, where our forebears had little stake in maintaining the seemingly unjust control of foreign interests, but much interest in creating a large body of works that the public could use to generate culture in this new world.

      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.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Yes a few countries have thought about that. If the cost of software is so great and everybody uses pirated copies, why not just drop all gov legal protections.
      The gov saves on token enforcement, balance of payments with gov software imports, gets the laws off the books and life goes on.
      Nothing changes for the gov, tax base or people. The rest of the world can then claim that country won't enjoy the same protections for their exports of art, software and science.
      Local traders sell the software at pric
    • "and more like early America, where our forebears had little stake in maintaining the seemingly unjust control of foreign interests"

      The difference is that "early America" had not yet agreed to any terms and was taking unilateral action, while in the current case the US *agreed to terms* and then reneged so Antigua pursued the remedy *that the US agreed to*.

  • Hurr durr (Score:3, Interesting)

    by girlintraining ( 1395911 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @10:24PM (#45242547)

    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

    Why does this press release read like an EULA? I mean that is a retarded amount of long words to describe a very simple idea. Why can't they just write it up as "We're bringing back fair use, bitches!"

    • Re:Hurr durr (Score:4, Insightful)

      by swillden ( 191260 ) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Friday October 25, 2013 @10:52PM (#45242675) Journal

      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

      Why does this press release read like an EULA? I mean that is a retarded amount of long words to describe a very simple idea. Why can't they just write it up as "We're bringing back fair use, bitches!"

      Because this has nothing to do with fair use. Fair use is restricted to non-commercial, educational, etc., use. This is about unrestricted, anything-goes use.

    • You should read the actual article! This guy really likes his exclamation points!!1

    • They are allowed to do anything they want with up to a certain amount of US intellectual property. In order to settle the money due them on complaint, Antigua plans to sell US intellectual property (monetisation).

      They need a way to track this so they don't go over the allowed amount, and probably a way to see how much people might pay for stuff, like an auction, in case they have a few hundred thousand dollars left on the limit and need to find a product and buyer to fill the gap.

      Compared to my explanation

    • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      it's not about "fair use".

      it's about "you broke the terms so now we're allowed to break the terms as punishment, so we're looking into how we could sell this stuff".

  • by stewsters ( 1406737 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @11:09PM (#45242757)
    As I figure, there are enough lobbyists that something will happen here. So who's lobbies are larger, the US gambling industry, or the US media industry? Or will they join forces rattling sabers and try force? This will turn out to be an interesting piece of politics.
  • property/not property... we don't need to go there.

    Rights? Isn't this about the revocation of rights?

  • As they should (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sayfawa ( 1099071 ) on Friday October 25, 2013 @11:33PM (#45242853)
    I'm too tired and drunk to remember or look up where I read this, but;
    the US didn't recognize other country's IP until it became one of the countries that could profit from IP. IP isn't some universal law inherent to humanity, it's a social construct that's good for "advanced" countries. When the US didn't fit that category, they were happy to use Europe's inventions with no compensation.

    Now, I'm not saying that IP is totally bad or useless, but there's no moral or legal reason why Antigua shouldn't go this route.
    • There's lots of documentation and historical examples of this, as well as some good (true!) stories. Check out the backstory of G&S's The Pirates of Penzance for just one example...

  • In 3...2....1..
  • Assuming Antigua actually goes through with this, they will likely find that the lure of $21M in gross profit isn't enough to get any real businesses interested (they would no doubt not want to invest in a business that had a gross cap annual net of $10M or so).

    It will probably end up being setup by some fly by night folks setting up a website in Antigua for the sole purpose to tick off the US with no intention of actually making money (or paying Antigua any local taxes on the $21M gross). I'm not sure Ant

  • by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Saturday October 26, 2013 @08:08AM (#45244209) Homepage

    Arghhh ... matey!

    Unless the pirate in question is dying (and trying to scrawl a message on a cave), it's just "Arr."

It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing. -- Descartes

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