Proceeding at Their Own Pace
Negotiations between the United States and seven of its WTO trading partners have been delayed, as the European Union, India and others agreed to give the U.S. government more time to negotiate compensation packages after it elected to withdraw gambling from its GATS commitments in May. "In order to provide all parties with sufficient time to reach a successful resolution, the United States and the claimants have jointly agreed that these negotiations should be extended until Dec. 14," said Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The negotiations faced an Oct. 22 deadline, and Hamel said that each negotiation is "proceeding at its own pace" and that some "are quite advanced."
Domain Hijacker Settles with US Trade Commission
John Zuccarini, who in 2003 was convicted of hijacking almost 6,000 domain names, settled last week with the government.
Zuccarini of Andalusia, Pa., operated thousands of domain names that consisted of misspellings of famous words or phrases. If a surfer accidentally misspelled or inverted a domain name, he would be redirected to one of Zuccarini's sites and hit with a barrage of ads for services such as pornography and Internet gambling. He was charged by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with violating federal law in 2001, and was forced to take down his Web pages.
After spending 30 months in jail and an additional three years on probation, Zuccarini has reached a settlement with the FTC for $164,000 and has agreed not to get involved with corrupt businesses.
Norway Mulls Payments Ban
The government of Norway is considering a U.S.-style payments ban on transactions between Norwegian banks and foreign I-gaming operators.
Trond Giske, the country's minister of culture and church affairs, indicated to a local newspaper that the ministry was drafting a proposal that included language covering the enactment of a ban.
Rolf Sims, legal advisor to the ministry, confirmed with IGN that a proposal is being drafted but did not specify as to its contents.
Talk of the payments ban follows just months after control of the Norwegian slot market was, by authority of the Norwegian Supreme Court, given over entirely to the state-owned gaming company, Norsk Tipping.
Sims observed that public opinion "to do something about gaming on the Internet" has grown considerably over the last two years, and indicated that the government had become especially concerned with issues related to online poker.
Sims said no time frame for the proposal had been issued, but Hanna Nilsson, who heads the Norges Pokerforbund (Norwegian Poker Association), told IGN hearings for the proposal could start within "a few weeks," and that Giske was pressuring to have the law enacted shortly after the First of the Year.