Comments on: Antigua Is Spunky!

by: wowpanda

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:10:46 +0000

But the truth is absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well educated man/woman just hides that better. I can remember when I was handed guild master the feeling of power rush through me (and that is only a game).

So when some lawyers argue before supreme judges on whether some matter is state or federal, the 9 man democracy is more likely to rule in favor of more power. And in the current stable system, no one is able to challenge any decision (even if it is unconstitutional).

This is certainly not 1803, the year where the elected officials has the guts to laugh at bad judgments.

by: Doogal

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:12:09 +0000

Actually,
We can have a supreme court, as long as they actually look at the tenth amendment:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Don’t know how federal abortion, welfare, tax or commerce laws really should be allowed with that in there, but whatever.

by: wowpanda

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:42:39 +0000

That goes with my argument that US don’t need the supreme court. This way each states enforce its own laws and there will not be a situation where the might of entire US crushing down on a small country on some non-issue.

Also this way we will have more freedom, because people in each state can decide on their own on issues such as gambling, abortion, whether or not to legalize drugs etc.

by: Steven Davis

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:29:10 +0000

As I understand things, the $21 Million was in direct damages (which the US can easily pay and keep ignoring the treaty).

Antigua can open up the IP “war” with the US. Yes, the US can dispute (via the WTO) the value of the IP protected or lost, but in the mean time, Antigua can keep operating their movie and music servers.

And the gambling dispute has gone on for years.

Of course, the real agenda is to get US IP owners to help lobby the US on the gambling laws.

Think about it, given the number of movies produced in most of the world, don’t you think a lot of countries would be perfectly content to assign a very low value to IP … something that would be very scary to Hollywood.

by: Ronald Watts

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:22:25 +0000

I had a good cackle when I first heard of this. I just hope they only use this against the big companies and not against any indy companies.
It great when you get to kick the huge companies, but kicking the little guys is teh suck.

by: Zell

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:07:56 +0000

… the WTO.

by: Zell

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:07:35 +0000

It looks to me like both PlayNoEvil and Digital Media Wire failed to include the part where the TWO awarded them the rights to do a specific amount of damage against the US, namely $21M:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/21/business/wto.php

Annoying to the US, and probably still legally interesting — but not nearly as cyberpunk.