Antiqua probably rings a bell by most CD Freaks visitors, a small country where Slysoft is located, the developers of the popular AnyDVD tool, which is able to circumvent copy protections which allows home users to create backups of their movies and games.

The country is also known world-wide for its pretty beaches and gambling. The United States. once tried to block off-shore gambling over the internet and Antiqua made a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that the U.S. was blocking free trade.

The WTO rules that the U.S. should allow off-shore gambling as it already allows gambling in their country in many states. So the U.S. will have to allow off-shore gambling however the U.S. still doesn't comply with the rule.

But not complying with the ruling presents big problems of its own for Washington. That’s because Antiqua, who is claiming $3.4 billion in damages, has asked the trade organization to grant a rare form of compensation if the American government refuses to accept the ruling: permission for Antiguans to violate intellectual property laws by allowing them to distribute copies of American music, movie and software products, among others.

The story is a bit more complicated, so for the full story, head over to the NY times.

Thanks for submitting goes to Liggy, our Server Administrator.