Re:Antigua gets OK to become copyright haven
by Nursie on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @04:59AM
(#5133170)
Ultimately it might be cheaper for everyone involved if the US just complied with the free and fair trade rules that it likes to impose on other nations, but hey, can't have everything.
There would be more losses to big casino companies (headed by healthy political donors) than $21mm/yr, if they opened up online gaming.
That way the company can make arbitrary amounts of money, with some value eventually accruing to Antigua, while remaining within the WTO definition.
The company could choose to value its earnings pretty much arbitrarily (either really high, based on retail price times number of downloads; or really low, based on bulk data transfer prices).
The big issue would be keeping international connectivity up -- while the WTO allows Antigua to do this, IIRC most of Antigua's Internet access is on a couple of cable systems owned by non-Antiguan companies (mainly C&W plc); the US could make life crappy for those companies. There are some international law issues with cutting off all communications and with the contracts for service on these cables otherwise, though, but it could be messy.
Ultimately it would be cheaper for the US to just give Antigua an extra $21mm/yr in foreign aid in exchange for them waiving their rights under this judgment. This could be buried in some kind of educational or bilateral trade agreement or something.