Here's the result of a WTO ruling that America lost and Antiqua won.
The country filed a dispute with the World Trade Organization on the grounds that the US had violated international free trade, and it won. As compensation, the WTO offered Antigua the right to suspend US copyright agreements on all forms of media, up to a value of $21 million a year.
"The remedy is expressly provided for under WTO law and, contrary to what the United States has publicly stated, will not constitute “piracy” or theft of intellectual property rights," the government of and Barbuda said in a press release back in January. "Rather, it will be a lawful suspension of intellectual property rights, conforming to the judgment of the relevant WTO tribunal."
After 10 years of failed diplomacy and legal wrangling, the offer was finalized in January. Now, the resulting media portal is inching closer to its debut. The government of Antigua announced in a statement last week that a committee is finalizing a bill to launch the media hub and it's looking for partners to help operate the platform, Network World first reported. Per the statement:
Although its proceedings are confidential, the Committee is said to be recommending the establishment by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda of a statutory body to own, manage and operate the ultimate platform to be created for the monetisation or other exploitation of the suspension of American intellectual property rights authorised earlier this year by the WTO.
It is understood that the necessary domestic legislation to implement the remedies is in the final stages of preparation for submission to Parliament. Additionally, an announcement regarding the opening of tenders for private sector participation in the operating of the platform should be announced shortly.
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/antigua-is-pirating-copyrighted-content-for-the-world
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Their internet backbone, their connection to the world, runs from there to the rest of the world, through servers in the US South. Don't be surprised if the US retaliates, because it can legally, by severing that backbone...rendering Antigua internet-less (and possibly telephone-less) until they relent. We're under no obligation to provide them access to the internet through government or private-owned servers within the US.
It's kind of hard to see on the map below but it's a loop running through the Caribbean from Miami to Mobile with no tendrils running anywhere except the US. That's their connections to the rest of the world on the internet. It's a closed loop connected to the US on both ends...unless they're going to spend 30x their yearly GDP to run a cable to Venezuela, they're are at the connectivity whims of the US.
