Antigua no longer bound by US copyrights

[robkelk]

The WTO has given Antigua and Barbuda permission to ignore US copyrights in films, television, and music because of the US' refusal to allow Antiguan internet gambling websites to accept US clients.
Details here.
It's about time - when a country signs a treaty, that country should abide by it. The US didn't. This was the only sanction that Antigua could get against them.
So, how long before Antiguan copies of Hollywood blockbusters start showing up on eBay?
-Rob Kelk
"Actually, my goal is to write neat stories. The money just makes it possible for me to write them faster and then buy neat toys."
Ryk E. Spoor, 7 November 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Well, yee-ha. I've been waiting for this for months, for several reasons.
ETA: Well, damn. They didn't get the multibillion settlement. $21 million is peanuts to the US entertainment business. Of course, since the RIAA and the MPAA don't want to miss a single penny of extorted income from anyone, they'll still scream bloody murder, but it won't actually hurt as bad as it should have.

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

[Logan Darklighter]

I'm with you on this, Bob. I really hate the RIAA and almost anything that hurts them I'm all for as long as the artists themselves aren't hurt by it as well.
Won't this hurt badly enough, though? You have an independent state that has, more or less, sanction to ignore the RIAA and any other weapon the recording industry can throw at them? Seems like someone could set up offshore there the servers and things needed to file share all the music you wanted with impunity, among other things. Am I missing something? What about other implications?
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
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[Morganite]

Seems like a peculiar arrangement to me. What do US copyright holders have to do with internet gambling, or any other form of gambling? I mean, I'm not really *opposed* to hurting the RIAA, but I don't see how they would be involved in this in the first place.
Also, their original claim was three times the size of their economy? What the hell?
-Morgan."Mikuru-chan molested me! I'm... so happy!"
-Haruhi, "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
---(Not really)

[robkelk]

---

Seems like a peculiar arrangement to me. What do US copyright holders have to do with internet gambling, or any other form of gambling? I mean, I'm not really *opposed* to hurting the RIAA, but I don't see how they would be involved in this in the first place.

---

Near as I can tell, it's the only sanction that they could reasonably get. The reasoning might be that the US government can bail out the companies' losses, so it's the US government that ends up paying... maybe.

---

Also, their original claim was three times the size of their economy? What the hell?

---

I'm guessing either "punitive damages" or "somebody took the claimed losses in the RIAA's lawsuits against music uploaders as an example".
-Rob Kelk
"Actually, my goal is to write neat stories. The money just makes it possible for me to write them faster and then buy neat toys."
Ryk E. Spoor, 7 November 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Mostly punitive, the way I understand it. The US government basically thumbed its nose at the trade agreements and treaties it signed, and gave all manner of lame excuses why it didn't abide by the agreements it made. There was, at one point, a perfectly straight-faced claim made by Gonzales' "Justice" Department that the US could retroactively change the terms of those treaties just by saying so. This was the only thing the WTO, on behalf of Antigua, could do that would hurt enough to get someone in the government to actually live up to the terms of those agreements.

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

[CattyNebulart]

Also the Antiguan economy has been hurt badly by the antigambeling laws. At one point I believe 80% of their economy was based on US gambling. Now that number is probably inflated, especially considering that gambeling really started to take off when the rest of their economy crashed. Still while it is disputed how much better off their economy would be if the US wasn't so protective of it's gambling industry it would be in a lot better shape. Losses are estimated at over a billion, so a 3 billion fine does not seem unreasonable. Also consider that this case has been dragging on for years, and the US has behaved very badly during that time, so some punitive damages would definitely not be out of place. At one point it even said it would start following the treaty and that the dispute was settled and then it went and did nothing. That sort of behavior just can't be tolerated, the US would be screaming bloody murder if say china tried to do something like that.
As for hurting the record industry... the aim is to hurt the US and the only way Antigua has to do that is by ignoring US copyrights. The WTO treats countries as a single thing, not as a multitude of things, because it can't interfere in the operations within a country. Such is the price for sovereignty.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[CattyNebulart]

some economic data:
www.antiguawto.com/WTO_Ec..._data.html
At one point Antigua had 61% of the global online gambeling market and it employed almost 2000 people. with a total population of 70'000 that is rather significant, factoring in that only about 70% of those people are of working age acroding to: /www.cia.gov/library/publ...os/ac.html
...The gambeling industry employed about 4% of the working age population. that is rather significant...
And it has grown since then, so Antigua has missed out on a rather significant growth to it's economy.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."