jason

Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.

Slashdot | WTO Awards Caribbean Country Right to Ignore US Copyright

The WTO’s recent ruling on Antigua’s complaint against the US over the banning of online gambling resulted in a payment to the island nation much less than they asked for. It appears, though, that this payment was just part of the WTO’s compensation package for Antigua/Barbuda. Via Kotaku, the Hollywood Reporter notes that the Caribbean country can now freely ignore US copyright laws - legally. This dispensation is apparently limited to some $21 million a year.

This is brilliant! I have no knowledge about the validity of the complaints or who is gooder or badder, but the WTO using copyright issues as a way to compensate a country is amazing, because how could you get a country to actually PAY a fine to another country? This works for me.