Antigua Could Hold The Key To Pandora's Box

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Published: Sunday, December 30, 2007 https://www.gowanbo.cc

"It's the wild West Indies, and every major copyright holder may be taken along for a ride."

The marketing publication Clickz has examined the World Trade Organisation ruling that gave Antigua and Barbuda the right to violate up to $21 million a year in copyright and trade mark protections of US companies following the online gambling tussle between the two nations.

The article quotes the New York Times, which reported: "...the ruling is significant in that it grants a rare form of compensation: the right of one country, in this case Antigua, to violate intellectual property laws of another -- the United States -- by allowing it to distribute copies of American music, movie and software products."

The Clickz piece then asks the question "Were U.S. media companies consulted about this deal before it was offered? I wonder if there aren't people in Antigua right now snapping up every (remaining) video-related domain name."

The author opines that the issue has the potential to explode right back in the face of the United States. By essentially giving people or companies in Antigua a free pass to distribute content without the copyright holder's permission, the WTO opens a Pandora's box of video and music piracy that will be very difficult to close back up - and there are already rumblings in those American industries about having to pay for government intransigence in an unrelated industry.

Even if the U.S. government strictly enforces the perceived dollar value of copyright violation, it's been proven many times before that it's difficult to assign a mutually agreed-upon value to each offence, Clickz points out before commenting that the US might be looking at another video distribution free-for-all reminiscent of the early days of Napster and Kazaa. "Before anyone in a suit knew what was going on -- but every college kid sure did. It's the wild West Indies, and every major copyright holder may be taken along for a ride."

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WTO这个裁决的确是打开了潘多拉的盒子。
一旦放开了版权和商标保护，将来很难收回去。

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Antigua Still Hopes For U.S. Settlement

Thursday, January 17, 2008 mgowanbo.cc

After years of litigation and rulings in its favour, Antigua is still negotiating

Antiguan Finance Minister Dr. Errol Cort has told reporters that the tiny Caribbean nation is still hopeful of a settlement of its online gambling dispute with the United States that will obviate the need to resort to WTO permission for copyright retaliation up to $21 million a year.

After years of litigation against the USA in the world trade body, and repeated rulings in its favour that its online gambling industry is suffering discrimination under US laws and policy, the country remains in negotiation and is scheduled to attend high level meetings in Washington on Thursday, Dr. Cort revealed.

The Minister is hopeful that the continuing discussions with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab will lead to a more amicable resolution than the need to apply trade sanctions approved by the WTO. Speaking to the press on his departure for Washington, Dr. Cort said the meeting would be the first "detailed discussions" between the tiny Caribbean islands and the United States over the gambling dispute.

"We believe this matter can be settled in an amicable way because we enjoy an excellent relationship with the United States," Cort said. "I am therefore hopeful (we can) come to some broad understanding in terms of settlement."

Cort has described the WTO's decision as a setback for Antigua, which had sought to apply US$3.4 billion (euro2.3 billion) in retaliatory measures against U.S.