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Antigua’s David stands up to the US Goliath using international copyright

Five years ago I noted that tiny Antigua was engaging in clever copyright manœuvering to use copyright law against the mighty United States in a trade dispute. You see, the US, in its fascist, maniacal zeal to Control Everything, including online gambling, retaliated against Antigua for not sufficient punishing its subjects for engaging in online gambling. This cost Antigua $21M or so (“allegedly”).

Antigua sued in the WTO and won, but had no way to collect. You know, because the US is so powerful and arrogant.

So it thought: hmmm, let’s just have a government-authorized site that allows piracy of Hollywood content, until our damages are recouped. Apparently the WTO agreed. I discussed this previously in in  Go, Antigua, Go! and  My Hero: Mark Mendel; see also Techdirt,  Antigua Says It’s Going To Start Ignoring US Copyrights (For Real This Time). The latest on this saga is detailed in the Techdirt post US Still ‘Warning’ Antigua That It Better Not Set Up Piracy Hub, Even As WTO Gives Approval. Go, David, Go!

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