Radley Balko at The Agitator notes that Antigua may retaliate against U.S. anti-Internet gambling law (already found to violate World Trade Organization rules) by refusing to enforce U.S. intellectual property law:
There’s no appetite for slapping trade sanctions on US goods; that would hurt Antiguan companies and consumers far more than Americans. Instead, the country may refuse to enforce American patents and trademarks. This would make it possible for Antiguan-based companies to produce knock-offs of American intellectual property, like video and music recordings or computer software. Such a tactic would get the attention of major US firms like Microsoft Corp. and entertainment titan Time Warner Inc. It would also put tiny Antigua’s trade war against the United States on front pages around the world.
Antigua, land of the free . . . downloads?! That may be too free for some people’s tastes, or the wrong kind of free, but it’s interesting to see how the digital world / information economy disrupts traditional power arrangements.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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