Newsweek article on WTO case gives us all hope

[The Buzz]

Buzzy has read lots of articles written by the gambling industry that paint the WTO decision as representing a huge sweeping change in the chances of US regulation of the industry. But most of those articles are written with rose-colored glasses, as the writer HOPES that will be the case.

But when the mainstream media, starts coming around, Buzzy gets excited.

Read this article in Newsweek, and you'll be a believer too ... some of the best quotes follow ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20790111/site/newsweek/

More important, the United States underestimated the remarkable power that even tiny countries wield in today's digitized global economy. Usually, when trade laws are broken, the WTO allows export sanctions to be imposed on the violating nation. But since Antigua hardly has the muscle to bring any meaningful sanctions against the United States, trade experts expect that the WTO will likely take another approach and allow Antigua to flout intellectual-property law.

If America doesn't fold on gaming, next year Antiguans could well be selling billions of dollars of legally pirated copies of everything from Microsoft software to Disney movies without paying the copyright owners a penny. "Intellectual property is the perfect sanction item," says Nao Matsukata, a former senior trade official for the United States. "It gives small countries like Antigua absolute leverage."

this isn't going to happen, immediately, however ...

"This won't happen fast; America is going to dig its heels in," says Sallie James, trade-policy analyst at Washington's Cato Institute. "But if I had to bet, I would say that by this time next year America will have changed its laws." And in this case, that means all bets will be on.

[mojo]

Thanks for the find Buzzy! I like the sound of that.

[GPWA Aaron]

One of my friends is a staffer for a NYS Congressman. I've been bugging him for months, telling him to get his Congressman to become a cosponsor of Barney Frank's bill.

He's been pretty skeptical of the whole thing for quite awhile, but he was visiting over the weekend and said that there's a "pretty good chance" that something will happen with the bill, probably not this year, but early next year.

That's the most positive news I've heard in months.