Post by jdaddy on Dec 31, 2007 12:58:41 GMT -4
Poker Players Alliance: News and Articles
[WTO] U.S. May Suffer After WTO Rules Against Internet Gambling Ban
by Nicholas Wapshott, The Sun
American companies may suffer from the legal piracy of movies, music, computer programs, and other intellectual property after the international regulator of free trade, the World Trade Organization, ruled that a ban on Internet gambling services provided by companies abroad is unlawful.
The WTO decision this week is the culmination of a long-running dispute between the U.S. Commerce Department and foreign gambling companies that are forbidden by American law from accepting bets from Americans.
In a test case brought by Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean islands were granted permission to ignore intellectual property rights owned by American companies in compensation for the loss of earnings caused by federal statutes and four American states that have outlawed Internet gambling. The American government responded robustly and with a veiled threat of withholding American investment, claiming in a statement that "it would establish a harmful precedent for a WTO Member to affirmatively authorize what would otherwise be considered acts of piracy, counterfeiting, or other forms" of intellectual property rights infringement.
Sean Spicer, a spokesman for U.S. trade representative, Susan Schwab, said further that if the islands began ignoring American copyright laws, it "would severely discourage foreign investment in the Antiguan economy."
Antigua was quick to try to mollify the dispute. "Antigua doesn't want to negate American intellectual property rights. They don't want to sell ... DVDs and copies of Microsoft Office," the lawyer who represented Antigua in the WTO proceedings, Mark Mendel, said in a press statement.
The WTO ruled that the gambling ban was against the principles of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, the free trade deal of which America is a party, and that America's failure to comply should be punished by allowing countries affected to ignore copyright laws protecting intellectual property owned by American companies.
[WTO] U.S. May Suffer After WTO Rules Against Internet Gambling Ban
by Nicholas Wapshott, The Sun
American companies may suffer from the legal piracy of movies, music, computer programs, and other intellectual property after the international regulator of free trade, the World Trade Organization, ruled that a ban on Internet gambling services provided by companies abroad is unlawful.
The WTO decision this week is the culmination of a long-running dispute between the U.S. Commerce Department and foreign gambling companies that are forbidden by American law from accepting bets from Americans.
In a test case brought by Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean islands were granted permission to ignore intellectual property rights owned by American companies in compensation for the loss of earnings caused by federal statutes and four American states that have outlawed Internet gambling. The American government responded robustly and with a veiled threat of withholding American investment, claiming in a statement that "it would establish a harmful precedent for a WTO Member to affirmatively authorize what would otherwise be considered acts of piracy, counterfeiting, or other forms" of intellectual property rights infringement.
Sean Spicer, a spokesman for U.S. trade representative, Susan Schwab, said further that if the islands began ignoring American copyright laws, it "would severely discourage foreign investment in the Antiguan economy."
Antigua was quick to try to mollify the dispute. "Antigua doesn't want to negate American intellectual property rights. They don't want to sell ... DVDs and copies of Microsoft Office," the lawyer who represented Antigua in the WTO proceedings, Mark Mendel, said in a press statement.
The WTO ruled that the gambling ban was against the principles of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, the free trade deal of which America is a party, and that America's failure to comply should be punished by allowing countries affected to ignore copyright laws protecting intellectual property owned by American companies.