Antigua planning to setup legal piracy site
Antigua is in the process of applying to run a legal pirate website which according to a WTO settlement between the United States and Antigua, they may have the legal right to do so.
The Safe Port Act included UIGEA which does not appear to have anything to do with protecting the ports in the United States.
UIGEA was signed by then President George Bush which changed the gambling landscape in America.
Antigua was one of the bigger igaming jurisdictions at the time and the country claims that UIGEA violates World Trade agreements.
Antigua complained to the WTO and won while the United States has simply ignored the ruling.
Antigua to date has yet to do anything about their award which is the right to ignore US patent and copyright law.
In translation, it means Antigua could copy, share or resell movies and software made in America and not have to pay the standard royalties.
The results of this could have a trickle down effect towards other igaming jurisdictions where some countries have closed off their country towards online gambling.
Perhaps something like this could get the current US government to revisit their stance towards online gambling and decide if they want to regulate it or continue their prohibition towards it.
As time passes by, we are seeing more States of the United States opening their doors to online gambling sites including Sportsbooks, Bingo websites, online casinos and other types of gambling sites. United States gambling market is BIG, not only for the igaming industry but almost for any market that you can think of and with the WTO Agreement between Antigua and United States it is for sure that we will see more websites dedicated to sell all kinds of content, activities, services etc. From Antigua to the United States of America.
The WTO between the United States of America and Antigua benefits more the U.S. than Antigua as mostly WTO deals that involve U.S., so it is for sure that Antigua residents will try to find any way to take advantage of the huge American market even if is means working piracy websites, or copying content or material from America to other countries or from other countries to America.
It would be up to US. Residents to decide what kind of content they would like to access since there are a lot of casinos, sportsbooks, stream websites, social medias from both inside the United States and from overseas, so you must wonder if Antigua websites will have at least a little effect on the United States?
If you are a US. Resident and you are reading this, you must decide if you would like to access cheap but "pirated & legal" content from other countries or if you are going to stick to the classic streamers like Netflix, HBO, YouTube and other services. You can always make good use of VPNs and other kinds of tools that protect your privacy since the Internet should be a human right with full access no matter where you are from and what website would you like to access.