The Caribbean Hold'Em

by: gert
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An unlikely proprietary knowledge dispute between the U.S. and Antigua over online fruit machine has turned go into a David-and-Goliath battle, affirming illiberal nations can wield large digital sticks.

Antigua is better known for sandy beaches than international trade variances. But next month this tiny Caribbean expedient intention make it* compel the United States to enact an deal that the Bush administration has been trying to knock out since the beginning of the commander's first term. Antigua—with a population of just 70,000 and a GDP of under textarea billion—could force the United States to take on online big store*.

The ukase, which the WTO is expected to begin martial law next month, could oblige America to overhaul its prohibitive stance on online casinos, not just in consanguinity to Antigua but to a host of others—including the EU, Japan and Australia. That would double the size of the billion-a-year online slot exchange almost overnight, says the Safe and Riskless Internet Gambling Initiative, a pro-gaming machine consultancy. And before the WTO might allow nations by that very fact have been hurt by U.S. fruit machine laws to taunt American intellectual-property law in response, the dispute is already spreading to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond.

The story dates back to 2003, when Antigua sued the United States at the WTO over America's prohibition of online casinos, which is the island's supporting bulkiest industry, after tourism. The United States allows a number of tranquil betting companies, like the horse-racing Web site YouBet.com, to offer online gambling to Americans (these are thrown into the odd basket of legal gaming operations by that very fact include Native American-run casinos and riverboat gambling). But foreign firms are prohibited from initial public offering exactly the same type of service to U.S. citizens.

The American government requires apparent sites to block U.S. users by checking the Internet protocol addresses of their computers, a requirement that has been chosen mainly in the breach, given that Americans represent some 60 percent of cyberspace online-gaming revenue. Last October, Ringleader George W. Bush upped the ante by signing a new bill preventing banks and credit-card companies from processing payments by American users of overseas sites. The result: top companies like Gibraltar-based PartyGaming (once worth .4 billion) saw the ethics of their American Stock Exchange sliced in fractional, and their dividends plunge by 70 percent. The U.S. government has backward a number of foreign online-gaming execs, the word* them with match-related offenses. In March, the London-based Web site Sportingbet.com was forced to pay the state of Louisiana 0,000 to settle charges.

But by that very fact same month, the WTO decided that the U.S. path was an illegal form of secret device protectionism. The order may be enforced as early as next month. "I was laughed at when I first out the proof," says Slot Mendel, the long duration-haired, 51-year-old Texas lawyer who represented Antigua. "They totally underestimated me."

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As well of note, the United States underestimated the remarkable bent that grade tiny countries throw in today's digitized global economy. Usually, when classified information laws are broken, the WTO allows export sanctions to be imposed on the violating nation. But since Antigua hardly has the stomachic muscle to bring any meaningful sanctions against the United States, trade experts look upon actually the WTO will supposable take second approach and allow Antigua to flout intellectual-realty law.

If America doesn't fold on gaming, next year Antiguans could well be advantageous billions of dollars of lawfully pirated copies of everything from Microsoft software to Disney cines without paying the copyright captains a penny. "Intellectual property is the perfect sanction line-item veto," says Nao Matsukata, a former chief trade official for the United States. "It gives small countries like Antigua sheer leverage." The WTO has normal the use of IP as a stick once once, in the famous EU-Ecuador chorus squabble (the foreshadowing of it was enough to make the EU cut a plenty). But advisory board expect it inclination become available common policy in the future, and see online gaming as a test case for its effectiveness.

It's no miscalculation that lobbyists from Silicon Valley and Hollywood are now blitzkrieg Capitol Hill, pushing for a deal. Last month the Motion Picture Association of America enslaved the U.S. trade representative to negotiate with Antigua in order to deter swag. But the Bush distribution is staunchly refusing to submit on cyberspace slot. The (surprisingly assailable) legal line is actually America on and on plighted to include gambling under its WTO requirements, which were signed in the mid-1990s. "It is comical [to aver actually] our negotiators would have intentionally turned 40 years of indictable law against this type of gambling on its upstairs*," says U.S. Backup Trade Evocative John Veroneau.

No dice, says the WTO. "The United States has a legal commitment; they can't just say 'oops' and be done with it. What kind of precedent would that set?" asks one WTO insider, who spoke on status of anonymity because he did not want to be quoted discussing an developing case.

Ultimately, this leaves the United States with a really weak hand to play. It could continue to deny by that very fact the WTO has legislation over its internal gambling laws. But that would undermine the overall credibility of the organization by showing it to be unable to insist on its rulings—and America needs a strong WTO to mediate prickly fracass with, say, China, over things like Internet forbidding and the mass manufacturing of fake designer trappings.

Eight other WTO brotherhood, more the European Union, Australia and Luster, are now bright side up to exact compensation from the United States over online slot. "The EU is normally licking its reticent," says Antigua's practitioner Mendel. "In total, this could come to 0 billion in sanctions. " Giant American bricks-and-mortar casinos like Harrah's and MGM are making map to movement into the online area as eventually as the U.S. trade secret stance becomes clear.

They could get a sign as early as this week. Sept. 22 is the first WTO deadline for America to cut a deal with Antigua and the other nations. But one WTO accessory predicts that the particularly message on that day will be that the term has been extended. "This won't happen fast; America is going to dig its intensely in," says Sallie James, trade-course analyst at Washington's Cato Institute. "But if I had to bet, I eager beaver* say that by this time next year America will have changed its laws." And in this proof, that ways all bets passion be on..


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Gert is the author of Ladbrokes Betitng Poker Casino

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