Legalised piracy from Antigua

[ffutures]

Because the USA won't pay money it owes the Antiguan government, they've just been granted the right to sell up to $21 million dollars worth of US copyright material a year, e.g. music, DVDs, etc.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/avast-me-hearties-antigua-legally-pirate-us-copyrighted-works?mm_ref=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fl.php%3Fu%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.networkworld.com%252Fcommunity%252Fblog%252Favast-me-hearties-antigua-legally-pirate-us-copyrighted-works%26h%3DkAQF0vc1E%26s%3D1

Exactly how this will work isn't clear, but may be interesting - it wouldn't surprise me if e.g. Sony bought the rights to do this so that they can sell works without having to pay royalties to the artists.

The amount per year isn't actually that big by the standards of companies like Sony, and it might be how they'd handle the problems caused by e.g. "orphaned" movies that nobody has clear rights to - at the moment there are legal snarls that stop releases of a lot of older works.

I'd be very surprised though if it led to wholesale production of really cheap copyright-busting stuff, because that's something big media would have to fight, and they have the money to suppress it one way or another.

Comments

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

If Antigua go ahead with this they can expect drone strikes within the month.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Really doubt it - like I said, the amount of money involved is actually fairly small.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

INteresting the US isn't paying some of its bills.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Not surprising, though. In the past, the US has collected illegal import duties, lost the appeal all the way up the chain, and then ignored the verdict rather than refund the money.

Look up, among many other, "shakes and shingles affair" (sometimes called "software lumber war")…

[resonant.livejournal.com]

It's actually standard practice when the US loses international court cases.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

That hasn't prevented military intervention in the past. Multiple invasions of Central American countries were executed so American fruit companies could avoid paying a trivially small amount of property tax.