BRUSSELS, Belgium - In an unusual ruling by the World Trade Organization, the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda won the right to waive U.S. copyrights on films, television and music.
In theory, Antigua will be allowed to distribute copies of American DVDs, CDs, games and software with impunity.
"That has only been done once before and is, I believe, a very potent weapon," said Mark Mendel, Antigua's lawyer. "I hope that the United States government will now see the wisdom in reaching some accommodation with Antigua over this dispute."
The decision by the Geneva-based
trade watchdog essentially enables Antigua to violate intellectual-property
protection worth up to $21 million as part of a dispute between Antigua and the
United States
over online gambling. The ruling closes a five-year legal battle that ended with
the WTO finding that Washington had wrongly blocked the island's online-gambling
operators from the American market while allowing online betting on horse
racing.
Antigua, with a population of about 70,000, is a center for offshore Internet-gaming operations and attracts large numbers of U.S. residents to its online casino-style games and betting services.
Though the WTO award is greater than the $500,000 offered by the United States, the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative welcomed the outcome, saying Antigua's
initial claim, at three times the size of its economy, was "patently
excessive." Antigua and
Barbuda had claimed damages of $3.44 billion
a year.
The WTO often makes decisions awarding trade compensation in cases in which one
nation's policies are found to break its rules. The WTO ruling in this case marks
only the second time the compensation lets one country violate intellectual-property
laws.
The Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative has warned that though the award was limited to Antigua, "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."
