Can You Help Me Now?

A Free Webinar on

Crowdsourcing Dispute Resolution

Over Mobile Devices

Wednesday November 20th, 2013

9am PST

Join Colin Rule, founder and current Chairman and COO of Modria.com and Chittu Nagarajan, creator and co-founder of ODRworld and ODRindia, to discuss their chapter, Crowdsourcing Dispute Resolution Over Mobile Devices, from the book “Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management,” edited by Marta Poblet.

This webinar is brought to you by CIJT and Marta Poblet as the first in a series of webinars by the authors of the seminal book, Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management, available for purchase here. Don’t miss this opportunity to interact with the authors live, ask questions and hear the latest developments in this cutting-edge field within conflict management.

If you’d like to ask the presenters a question, feel free to post to our forum at http://forum.thecenter.org/

All questions asked before 11/22 will be answered.

Antigua preparing to move forward with WTO authorized rejection of US copyrights (Patently-O, 31 Oct 2013) – Over the past several decades, the US has been at the forefront of pushing through low international trade barriers and strong intellectual property rights. The current scheme is organized through the World Trade Organization and the vast majority of nations have signed-on as members. The WTO has a dispute resolution mechanism that allows one country to bring another country to task for failing to abide by their trade-related promises. Most of these cases involve either import restrictions placed on certain goods or the “dumping” of goods. Since around 2003, the US has taken fairly effective measures to destabilize the market for cross-border gambling and betting services. In response to those measures, the country of Antigua and Barbuda filed a WTO dispute complaining that the US action was a trade violation and, the WTO panel agreed with Antigua. The particular findings are that “three US federal laws (the Wire Act, the Travel Act and the Illegal Gambling Business Act) and the provisions of four US state laws (those of Louisiana, Massachusetts, South Dakota and Utah) on their face, prohibit … cross-border supply … contrary to the United States’ specific market access commitments for gambling and betting services.” [ Link ] The penalty for a WTO violation typically involves the WTO allowing counter-measures by the injured party – typically their own import quota or restriction. In countries with a strong domestic industry, the import quota can provide a strong, be it temporary, boost. However, those quotas also injure local consumers who typically pay more for lower quality goods or services. Antigua’s particular situation is also unique because the country does not have much of any domestic industry beyond tourism (including Gambling). As such, a typical quota does not make sense as a penalty against the US. At the end of the day, the WTO authorized Antigua to suspend its TRIPs obligations with respect to U.S. intellectual property at a cost to the US. Antigua is now rapidly moving forward with a monetization scheme that would essentially create a local market for copyrighted work owned by U.S. entities, but where no royalties are paid to the U.S. copyright holders. Antiguan legislation is expected in the upcoming weeks followed by bids from private contractors to build-out the online marketplace.

Provided by MIRLN.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net/Stuart Miles.