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HavenCo In Trouble?

Posted by timothy on from the naysayers-revenge dept.

Evil Al writes "News.com is reporting on the talk given by Ryan Lackey, former CTO of HavenCo, at DefCon. Lackey claims that the company is teetering on the edge due to internal upheaval and lack of customers. Oh, and 9/11, of course."

15 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. It was only a matter of time... by joshv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These guys never had a workable business plan to begin with. They were selling bandwidth at a huge premium over what it costs just a few miles away in the UK. If you are able to pay that much, you are probably doing something illegal to begin with, and HavenCo won't host you.

    This was a solution looking for a problem that never materialized. The idea certainly captured the imagination of slashdotters though.

    -josh

    1. Re:It was only a matter of time... by sxltrex · · Score: 5, Funny

      Did you happen to read the article?

      You're new here, aren't you? ;-)

  2. no wonder they're in trouble! by drgroove · · Score: 5, Funny

    given by Ryan Lackey, former CTO of HavenCo, at DefCon

    Even their ex-CTO was a Lackey!

  3. acceptable use policy by Carbon+Unit+549 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their acceptable use policy defeats the purpose of the haven?!

    HavenCo said on Monday that its acceptable use policy "stands as originally written. However it is the case that principality law forbids any act...which is against international law, linked with terrorism, or contrary to international custom and practice. These restrictions are in keeping with those found in any country."

    That bold bit pretty much covers everything.

    --

    nohup rm -rf ~/. >& zen &

  4. Bad Publicity? by StickMang · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the article:
    Tan was prepared to pay HavenCo millions of dollars to host a Web site that would let customers stream movies from legally purchased DVDs, something that was not clearly illegal because only one customer at a time could view each stream, Lackey said. The Sealand royal family balked over the possibility of bad publicity, Lackey said. "I decided as soon as I got out of the meeting that I was going to quit," Lackey said.

    No wonder they're going under. They're HavenCo, they should be hosting these types of sites. They turn down hosting sites like this that seem almost custom fitted to their business model! The king of sealand must be a quirky fellow indeed.

    --
    StickMan
    www.rageagainst.net
  5. Business and lunatics by duffbeer703 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who in the hell is going to do business with some lunatic who fancies himself as the "Prince" of a gun platform?

    --
    Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
    1. Re:Business and lunatics by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
      > "Reliability? Security? Just remember that all of your financial transactions are subject to the whims of a man that fancies himself a king!"

      And how'd 'e get to be king, eh? By exploitin' the geeks! Supreme authority 'as got to come from a widely distributed peer-to-peer network, not from some farcical aquatic hosting company!

      I mean, if I went around sayin' I was king just because some moistened bint threw a bunch of servers and a fiber-optic link at me, they'd put me away!

  6. All about the price by mcgroarty · · Score: 5, Informative
    I wanted to host there, but a low-end box on a trickling 64kbit line was $500/month!

    They really need to offer lower rates to fill those racks up a bit more, save the novelty premiums for those last slots.

  7. Help your friends at Sealand! by mblase · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're short on money, but I'm sure someone would be willing to send them a few million to keep afloat.

    They're just another victim of the dot-com fallout, really. Yet another company that completely missed the boat.

    I mean, their business directors must really be lost at sea as to how to resolve these problems.

    Perhaps they'd succeed with a new software strategy? Say, pier-to-pier filesharing?

    Oh, I kill me....

  8. Re:Not worth the money... by admbws · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real truth is, you could find a colocation facility in China or other far-eastern country that would host you a hell of a lot cheaper. They are simply not competitive.

    Furthermore, if I was hosting seriously illegal content on a huge scale, I would question the militarial resiliance of Sealand too. They are just a small fort, probably with no real defences to speak of anymore. Would a certain country or two we know go as far as invading it because the rampant piracy was hurting their economy? These countries have already ignored the UN's opinion on a certain military campaign very recently. At least only a very stupid country would dare invade China!

  9. Re:i think... by azzy · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was however outside of UK territorial waters at the time it was claimed. And as such was not under UK law. The UK extender their territorial waters around it when it was claimed. The legal/political position is a little unclear, however a UK judge has previously declared he had no authority over it as it wasn't part of the UK.

  10. Re:i think... by filledwithloathing · · Score: 5, Informative
    The platform is inside UK teritorial waters - period. The UK government does not recognize 'Prince Roy' and in this case it is the opinion of the executive and not the judiciary that is relevant.
    Actually when Sealand was "founded", UK Territorial waters only extended 3 miles. You cannot claim territory by extending your Territorial Waters under International Law. Since the UK courts have ruled that they have no jurisdiction in Sealand it would seem that Sealand was and is a country.

    The UK could not extend it's Territorial Waters 100 miles and then claim the beaches of Normandy.

    --
    Are you a VF grad? Check out the VFMA Alumni Forums VFMA Alumni Forum
  11. Re:Havenco an interesting case... by deblassc · · Score: 5, Informative

    this is total BS according to Lackey.

    havenco did not have a "sealed oxegen free room" it had 5 lan racks with about 15 servers on there.... thats it.

    apparently they spent more money on getting a flakey wireless link up then they did on servers.

    also in the talks he said that sealand has like 2 people residing there now.... and he said that a armed takeover would take about 10 minutes..... so anyone have a chopper I can borrow?

  12. Re:Oh Please...... by smcavoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sending royal marines into a "sovereign" nation would be a violation international law, oh wait never mind.

  13. Re:i think... by filledwithloathing · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually the Brittish briefly tried to retake Sealand but thought better of it when Sealand shot back.
    By late 1968, the British navy had become aware of the new situation off the coast of England. They were interested in terminating the state of affairs brought about by an error committed by the most senior military authorities without causing too much uproar.

    Units of the navy entered the territorial waters claimed by Roy of Sealand. As he was aware of his sovereignty, Roy of Sealand threatened the navy by undertaking defensive activity. Shots were fired from Sealand in warning. Since Roy of Sealand was still an English citizen, he was thus accused of extensive crimes in Britain and was summoned to an English court. The result of this lawsuit in Chelmsford, Essex was a spectacular success for Sealand's claim to sovereignty. In its judgment of 25 November 1968, the court declared that it was not competent in Roy of Sealand's case as it could not exert any jurisdiction outside of British national territory. This is the first de facto recognition of the Principality of Sealand. English law had ruled that Sealand was not part of the United Kingdom, nor did any other nation claim it, hence Prince Roy's declaration of a new Sovereign State was de facto upheld.

    The UK's legal system has consistently treated Sealand as a sovereign nation.
    "If Sealand irritates anyone sufficiently, they're toast."
    ...so is Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, etc., etc., etc.
    --
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