The real Pirates of the Caribbean
A very interesting case is moving through the halls of International statesmen. Two Caribbean countries, Antigua and Barbuda have been actively pursuing their right to sell online gambling services to Americans by filing legal actions with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Two WTO panels have ruled in favor of the tiny islands leaving the Bush administration with a difficult decision to make: comply or not. If they comply, then they're throwing open the window for all forms of Internet gambling to come in. If they do not, the islands' lawyer, Mark Mendel, has asked for a clever form of compensation to pay off the $3.4 billion in damages that he's requested--the right for the Islanders to copy American content, software, music and video, to pay off the USA's debt.
Since America has exhausted their WTO appeals, they're going to have to deal with this one. There's no great way out of this for the Bushies, but I'm tickled and eagerly waiting the outcome. If they make Internet gambling legal, then great. This will get government out of the business of legislating morality. If they balk and the islands start selling illegal copies of movies (totally legal within their own countries and internationally sanctioned by the WTO), also great.
From my limited libertarian perspective, it's a win-win.
Posted on August 23, 2007
