World Trade Organization (WTO) issued an unusual resolution - Caribbean country Antigua got the right for the violation of copyright for movies, music and software created in the USA. There is one restriction - the total cost of pirated production mustn't exceed $21 million in a year. The decision of WTO was made in order to settle a controversy between countries as regards online gambling.
WTO decided that Antigua gambling sites were blocked illegally by Washington. Online gambling is forbidden in the USA; the authorities prohibited their own citizens to visit foreign sites of such an orientation and blocked Antigua sites.
The damage caused to Antigua and Barbuda is assessed at $3,44 billion. This figure makes WTO "concessions" insignificant because Antigua struggles for its gambling industry.
United States insist that Antigua caused to their economy a damage of $500 thousand.
Yet WTO resolution is a unique one, since it gives a very uncommon form of compensation: the concession of rights to a country, Antigua in this case, for the violation of intellectual property laws of another one - United States. Antigua can produce pirated copies of American music, films and software.
Despite the fact that Antigua is more famous with its beaches and tourist attractions, dozens of online casinos have a great importance for the island's economy.
This argue seems to be quite a political one because there are lots of other countries in the world that copy the intellectual property of the USA companies and individuals without paying license fees at all, though there are laws that are aimed to control this - these are almost all former Soviet countries and the problem in their case is that the state systems that should control the conformity to the law are incapable enough to do this effectively. Another reason is the mentality of the population that still does not have the intellectual property rights in their philosophy.
Iuri Tarabanov writes about interesting travel experiences. His Discount travel site is http://www.travelime.com