US Copyrights To Vanish in Antigua

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, this is a little complicated, but I've been watching it for a while, so let me see if I can sum it up. The US, in its zeal to crack down on offshore internet gambling, has been putting pressure on countries where it's legal, like Antigua. This is in direct violation of a WTO treaty the US signed a few years ago that (as one of its many many terms) requires it to respect overseas gambling outfits if domestic ones are allowed. Countries were allowed to exclude terms like this one before signing -- they were allowed to agree to a subset of the treaty, as long as they specified what the exclusions were beforehand.
The United States did not exclude the bit about Internet gambling. It's now claiming both a) it didn't have to, because it's the US, and b) it didn't know it could.
Riiiiight.
Antigua has been banking on net betting to partially replace tourism (which can be volatile) as a prop of their economy, but the DOJ's crusade against it has been damaging the country. It filed a proper complaint with the WTO. A couple of them apparently. The WTO ruled in Antigua's favor, and told the US either knock it off or go after its internal gambling outfits.
The US's response has been, "go screw yourself, we're the big boys and we don't need to listen to anyone telling us what to do."
So Antigua has petitioned for, and is apparently going to get, the ultimate sanction against the US -- the right to ignore US intellectual property rights. Which means, Antigua is going to be able to legally duplicate and distribute anything with a US copyright on it, without having to pay the copyright holders anything.
Register story here.
When this happens, I'm betting (with an outfit in Antigua, of course) that the RIAA and the MPAA's collective heads are going to explode. Can you just imagine the resulting collision in Washington, between the big money lobbyists who are seeing their dying profit model get shot in the head, and the Imperialist administration who won't be told what to do by anyone? It'll be violent, it'll be bloody, it'll be glorious. Mutually annihiliating hypocrisy.

-- Bob
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The Internet Is For Norns.

[Kokuten]

dear god..
I fapped.
Edit: Between this and good 'ol Jack Thompson, it's a damn fine day.
games.slashdot.org/games/...6236.shtmlWire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[robkelk]

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The United States did not exclude the bit about Internet gambling. It's now claiming both a) it didn't have to, because it's the US,

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Unfortunately, that reasoning is probably what's going to keep US citizens from benefiting from anything Antigua manages to get approved.
The US has a history of ignoring decisions that go against its preceived economic interests (for example, they still haven't dropped the softwood lumber tariffs that the US-dominated NAFTA tribunal told them to drop last year). If you live in the US, don't hold your breath on this one.

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When this happens, I'm betting (with an outfit in Antigua, of course) that the RIAA and the MPAA's collective heads are going to explode. Can you just imagine the resulting collision in Washington, between the big money lobbyists who are seeing their dying profit model get shot in the head, and the Imperialist administration who won't be told what to do by anyone?

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I'm more interested in seeing the MPAA/RIAA vs. the "gambling is eeeeeevilllllll" moral minority, actually. We'll finally get to find out which one has more influence in the US Congress...

-Rob Kelk
--
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

[DHBirr]

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When this happens, I'm betting (with an outfit in Antigua, of course) that the RIAA and the MPAA's collective heads are going to explode. Can you just imagine the resulting collision in Washington, between the big money lobbyists who are seeing their dying profit model get shot in the head, and the Imperialist administration who won't be told what to do by anyone? It'll be violent, it'll be bloody, it'll be glorious. Mutually annihiliating hypocrisy.

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Unfortunately, "mutually annihilating hypocrisy" is not what I see coming out of this. What I see is Shrub's administration deciding it needs to send already overstretched troops to change yet another regime that's defied George the Second -- and struck a blow at the pocketbooks of Big Business. And MPAA/RIAA will have no problem with that. After all, they not only don't serve in the military, they probably don't even know anyone who serves.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Florin]

I'm not suprised that the WTO is willing to slap down such a harsh penalty on the U.S, given the way the administration has been thumbing thier noses at any ruling that doesn't go thier way.--
La Krueze: I just want everyone in the universe to suffer. Is that so wrong?
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

[Bob Schroeck]

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What I see is Shrub's administration deciding it needs to send already overstretched troops to change yet another regime that's defied George the Second -- and struck a blow at the pocketbooks of Big Business.

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I don't think it will come to that, if only because it's more Congress that's in the pigopolists' pockets than W. And regardless of the money they throw around, this would be a hard sell in Congress, especially one elected with an apparent mandate to end the current war. Plus, W doesn't dare divert any troops away from pacifying Iraq. I think W is determined to have a peaceful, democratic Iraq as some kind of crowning achievement to his administration, regardless of how realistic that goal is, and he's not going to threaten it by doing anything that will take troops away from the region.

-- Bob
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The Internet Is For Norns.