[Wikimedia-l] "Legalised Piracy"

[Thomas Dalton]

On 30 January 2013 12:12, Richard Symonds
<richard.symonds at wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> Very interesting things happening in Antigua and the US:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21247683
>
> Essentially, the World Trade Organization (WTO) have ruled that the islands
> have the right to suspend US intellectual property rights. It all stems
> from a trade dispute in 2003, where the US effectively banned electronic
> interstate gambling, which in turn damaged Antigua's economy."
>
> This has led to one thing and another, and "...on Monday the WTO's dispute
> settlement body gave final authorisation for Antigua to sell movies, music,
> games and software via a store that would be able to ignore US copyright
> and trademark claims."
>
> I'm not sure what this means for the movement - I'm sure there will be a
> long and lively discussion - but it's a very interesting turn of events in
> IP law.

I believe that option has always been on the WTO's list of remedies.
It has no way to force sovereign countries to pay anything, so this
kind of thing is the only way it can enforce the rules. I'm not sure
how many times it has used that particular power.