Pirates of the Caribbean

Radley Balko | May 24, 2007

Let the games begin:

Antigua and Barbuda - a nation of 70,000 in an area roughly half the size of San Francisco - has formally requested that the WTO allow it to suspend its intellectual property obligations to the United States, AP reports.

Although many in the US have mocked tiny Antigua'a case against the US with a shrug of the shoulders, the Antiguans have always carried in their pockets a nuclear option of sorts. Most Americans view trade disputes through the prism of tit-for-tat protectionist schemes. A perceived price subsidy leads to retaliatory tariffs, etc; but the obligations imposed by WTO obligations run deeper than that.

[...]

And little Antigua is not the only country feeling the pinch. The UK, which has possibly the most well-regulated gambling market in the world - at the very least among the major economies - has sat back and watched as the DOJ has repeatedly arrested UK businessmen and executives.

The idea that other countries will put up with this abuse indefinitely may finally have run its course. Once one country chooses to revise its definitions of its own commitments, as the US claims it will do, other impacted countries may do the same. The only question now is whether the major American trading partners - Europe, Japan, and China - join the party.

Is it unpatriotic to say that I'm rooting for the other guys in all of this?

Comments

lunchstealer|5.24.07 @ 12:51PM|#

Why does freedom hate America.

Thrall|5.24.07 @ 12:51PM|#

No, its not unpatriotic. We are patriotic towards our country, not our government. We need to leave everyone else's laws alone and Pull our military out of them. We also need to have true free trade, not the government crap we have now.

I am getting sick of this.

Christopher Monnier|5.24.07 @ 12:51PM|#

> Is it unpatriotic to say that I'm rooting for the other guys in all of this?

You're rooting for liberty...what's unpatriotic about that?

|5.24.07 @ 1:05PM|#

Speaking of pirates...

|5.24.07 @ 1:06PM|#

Disloyalty is something we can't tolerate, Radley.

|5.24.07 @ 1:13PM|#

Did you all read what Juan Millan said? The US always meant to exclude gambling from its WTO commitments, we just sort of, you know, forgot to mention it. I think the US diplomatic corps was surprised to learn that we would have to give something up in order take advantge of the WTOs intellectual property rules. We're the US, and we're allowed to pick and choose, right?

|5.24.07 @ 1:17PM|#

Radley,

Thanks for continuing to update on this issue. The elite journalists and other "important people" (read: stuffed shirts) want to make this a marginal story and ignore it. They don't believe that the right to have fun is something for serious public policy debates.

Politicians should know that this is shit matters. A message: don't fuck with your voters' hobbies or else one day maybe we'll figure out how to kick your ass out of office.

Bhh|5.24.07 @ 1:20PM|#

Lucky for Antigua we're a little tied up elsewhere or we might have to liberate them Grenada style.

|5.24.07 @ 1:24PM|#

The Antiguan military is a couple hundred troops. Heck, just send those Atlanta SWAT guys. That should do it.

I'm suddenly reminded of Heartbreak Ridge with Clint Eastwood and Mario Van Peebles. They tried very very hard to make Grenada look like a big deal...but even in the context of the film it looked silly.

|5.24.07 @ 1:29PM|#

If I'm not mistaken, the movie Heartbreak Ridge depicted an ayatollah as a liberator of Grenada.

|5.24.07 @ 1:38PM|#

I started typing a confused response to that than about half-way through finally got the joke. ;)

|5.24.07 @ 1:38PM|#

I hope the situation get better. More than that, I hope when we get a new AG we release the people we've already arrested. Then we should hold a press conference saying "We were wrong on this whole international internet gambling thing. We're very sorry for any inconvenience."

|5.24.07 @ 1:47PM|#

Ehn. I obviously sympathize with Antigua, but our government isn't going to suffer a whit from their retaliation, so I can't bring myself to root for them.

|5.24.07 @ 1:51PM|#

I am rooting for Antigua simply because they are attempting to save themselves (or at least a main industry) against insurmountable odds. Yeah, they may fail, and we will all be worse off for it, but...
GO Antigua GO!

FWIW, I have money on Antigua running a 7pt spread.

|5.24.07 @ 2:04PM|#

Kind of hard to blame the American government from trying to stop some pissant country from taking American money while giving nothing in return.

|5.24.07 @ 2:08PM|#

Dan T.,
Can I interest you in some trolling lessons? You give me your money and URKOBOLD® will teach you to troll the world.

Dan T\'s dormant brain|5.24.07 @ 2:11PM|#

huh, wha? did i just say something?

"Kind of hard to blame the American governments of other countries from trying to stop some pissant overreaching country from taking American their money while giving little, if nothing in return."

Based on your logic, the US should also ban all tourism outside of the states.

|5.24.07 @ 2:12PM|#

Kind of hard to blame the American government

Any sentence that starts with this phrase is almost certain to be wrong.

from trying to stop some pissant country from taking American money while giving nothing in return.

And we are not disappointed!

|5.24.07 @ 2:24PM|#

I'm routing for Antigua and Barbuda. It's great to see a country take a stand without bombing civilians.

|5.24.07 @ 2:27PM|#

Based on your logic, the US should also ban all tourism outside of the states.

Tourism is not a destructive and addictive vice like gambling is.

Meyer|5.24.07 @ 2:41PM|#

You've obviously never been to Disneyland!

D.A. Ridgely|5.24.07 @ 2:46PM|#

"Kind of hard to blame the American government"

Any sentence that starts with this phrase is almost certain to be wrong.

Here, let me fix that for you, R.C.:

Any sentence that starts with this phrase is almost certain to be wrong.

|5.24.07 @ 2:48PM|#

Did he actually use the term "vice?" Somebody call the Moral Majority, one of their flock has wandered off their property!

Dan T\'s dormant brain|5.24.07 @ 2:56PM|#

"Dan T. | May 24, 2007, 2:04pm | #

Kind of hard to blame the American government from trying to stop some pissant country from taking American money while giving nothing in return."

"Dan T. | May 24, 2007, 2:27pm | #

Tourism is not a destructive and addictive vice like gambling is."

I said, "based on your logic" from the first statement...that they "take money while giving nothing back". As your brain, you're making me look bad.

Had you said, "take your money while destroying your moral character", then I might not have compared it to tourism...

Even then, that's debatable...

Wake me up when you're tired of spewing this nonsense.

Sincerely,

Your Dormant Brain

|5.24.07 @ 3:02PM|#

The only question now is whether the major American trading partners - Europe, Japan, and China - join the party.

I thought the biggest American trading partners were Mexico and Canada.

|5.24.07 @ 3:02PM|#

The WTO's problem with the U.S. is not that the U.S. is anti-gaming; its allowed to ban that under the "morals" exception. Unfortunately, U.S. jurisdictions are VERY pro-gaming - just not pro-gaming held in foreign territories. Stopping the biasing of laws in favor of home industries is the raison d'etre of the WTO.

The U.S. government may notice when the MPAA/RIAA start screaming because the Pirate Bay have set up shop in Antigua and are downloading Spiderman 3 to every home computer in the U.S.

Dan T.\'s dormant brain|5.24.07 @ 3:09PM|#

Had you said, "take your money while destroying your moral character", then I might not have compared it to tourism...

Even then, that's debatable...

For a clue, Dan T., see Ramon's comment above...

|5.24.07 @ 3:29PM|#

HELP! the brain won't talk to me! I got warts all over and in me. And they're silly looking. Please help. oooohhh.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|5.24.07 @ 3:44PM|#

The hilarity in this is that "pundits" all claimed that Antigua would never escalate to IP.

Idiots.

|5.24.07 @ 10:30PM|#

Entertainment/media is one thing.

The pharmaceutical industry is another. Antigua will, if they succeed, start churning out knockoffs of all those expensive drugs, which will, surprise! be smuggled/exported all over the world.

Billions of dollars in damage to the entertainment, media, software, and pharmaceutical industries will certainly get their lobbyists rushing for their phones.

|5.25.07 @ 1:36AM|#

I am very much for legal gambling. It is illegal gambling I\'m against. Those fuckers should be routed and murdered on the streets.

And speaking of speaking of pirates,
Wheeee!

Mr. X|5.25.07 @ 2:25AM|#

It should be made clear that Antigua has the right to do this under the WTO charter.

|5.30.07 @ 12:43PM|#

"Did you all read what Juan Millan said? The US always meant to exclude gambling from its WTO commitments, we just sort of, you know, forgot to mention it"

lol...we forgot to mention it until James Dobson and his gang of thugs took control of the Whitehouse.