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Antigua allowed to Pirate 21 million US$ worth of US media

Posted: 22 Dec 2007 15:11
by Dust
In a dispute with the US, the WTO has made an interesting sentence:
On 21 June 2007, Antigua requested authorization from the DSB6, under Article 22.2 of the DSU, to suspend the application to the United States of concessions and related obligations of Antigua under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (the "GATS" and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the "TRIPS Agreement") amounting to an annual value of US$3.443 billion.
Taking account of the data uncertainties we have discussed earlier, we have decided to take the average of the two figures we calculated in paragraph 3.187 above in making our final award. Averaging and rounding to the next full million results in an amount of US$21 million.
Translation: Antigua can violate US copyright for 21 million $. (Translation not by me, I didn't get it either... lawyer speak mixed with business speek...)

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dis ... s285_e.htm
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dis ... 5arb_e.pdf

Posted: 22 Dec 2007 18:46
by Jem
Antigua is the seat of Slysoft, which produce software that violates the EUCD and the DMCA, both reverse engineering prohibitions against circumventing copy protection for audio/video data.
In other countries companies that produce these types of programs have been shut down.