Slashdot Mirror
Sealand Put Up For Sale
antic writes "The Principality of Sealand is up for sale. The 550 square meter steel platform boasts "uninterrupted sea views", complete privacy and has been mentioned on Slashdot in the past for its offers of hosting outside the jurisdiction of (some) traditional laws."
However its hard to see it working out long term, otherwise it would actually be a decent way around the cyberspace annoyances. However the problem boils down to you have to get the bandwidth from somewhere. Most likely the UK due to its proximity. If you ISP is someplace with draconian IP laws then you always have the potential to be cut off.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Last time there was a slashdot story on them, they had the business model of providing a place where folks could store sensitive data without fear of subpeona -- they wanted to be, for data storage, what Switzerland used to be for bank accounts. Guess it didn't work. They don't really have as much independence as they thought... it's tough to hold your ground when your entire country is one "accident" (or torpedo) from oblivion at worst, or a few weeks of blockade away from starvation at best.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Or:
1) get together with other geeks
2) make a joint offer for sealand ownership, each one pays a little share.
3) get sealand
4) enact legislation which is impossible anywhere else because of WTO, like: no patent on software, only copyright. No stupid patents on anything. There is something that can be done for censorship, to free scientific research hampered by stupid lawsuits, lots of possibilities.
5) Open embassies wherever a geek need a safe place to develop his ideas without fears of lawsuits. An embassy is territory of sealand too. SSH provides no data sent to sealand and other embassies violates any international law as it's just encrypted blobs there.
6) Profit for all humanity.
What do you think?
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
You forgot "4a) Actually get recognised by at least one other country". Best of luck with that.
starvation? it's called fishing
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
He doesn't need it. He can already get away with whatever he wants regardless of local laws ;)
Nations are sovereign only because they have enough firepower to keep other nations from claiming them. What does it matter what the laws of Sealand are, if you own it and you have no army? Is the army included, or do you have to put it together yourself?
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
...or supervillian headquarters.
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
For far less than 65m you can build your own damn platform and anchor it in the channel or north sea.
Such confidence would be misplaced.
Either the platform is British Soveriegn territory or it isn't.
The most likely case is that the British courts consider the platform to be under UK jurisdiction following the expansion of the teritorial limits. International law does not recognize teritorial claims based on man made structures. Contrary to claims made British court has ever recognized sovereignty claims by any other party over the platform.
Ergo if the UK courts choose to issue a subpoena the subpoena can be served and enforced. Moreover since the Bates family are the directors of HavenCo and they live in the UK they can be arrested and imprisoned on contempt charges if they refuse to comply regardless of the sovereign status of the platform.
If the British courts did choose to recognize the sovereignty of the platform they or anyone else can declare war on it and blow the thing to smitherines if they make a nuisance of themselves.
The main reason that this has not happened to date seems to be that HavenCo does not have any customers worth the trouble.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Well, the Principality Army could stay on site to prevent a coup. What? There is no army? Well then, the citizens can form a militia... You say there are no citizens either? So what does "Prince" Michael rule over?
This notion that an abandoned radar platform has somehow achieved sovereign nation status just because its squatters say it is has always been a bad joke. They've only gotten away with it because nobody gives a shit. They claim to have a legal decision, but what they really have is a court case the the UK crown won't appeal out of bureaucratic inertia. The very first time they'd done something to really piss people off, a platoon of Scotland Yard bobbies would have landed, sent the "Prince" back to his sheep, and that would have been the end of it.
Because, legally, invading another country is illegal under international law, whereas a coup is only illegal under the laws of the country it happens in, which don't matter if the coup succeeds.
The only reason England hasn't threatened military force is the sole fact that an invasion of what is, under international law, a sovereign nation, is illegal.
Technically, doing what I suggested is also frowned on, but a rebellion with the support of 100% of the resident population, who don't get to vote, against a non-local king who owns their land and requires them to pay taxes and rent without providing any services...well, we know it's silly, but it sounds a lot better, it sounds almost like a medieval feudal rebellion.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Don't be too silly. International Law? No country has ever even officially recognized Sealand, it just puts up with it because it is kinda funny and they don't cause much trouble if they are left alone. To the UK it is just a bunch of local squatters in an abandoned sea platform, you have to believe that they would be thrown out if they discovered oil under it or needed to clear it to make way for a sea lane or something. The only reason you couldn't just show up and start fighting over it would be because the UK would finally move in with force and demolish it. Oh just try to open up a luxury casino or something and see if the UK doesn't step in to collect taxes.
Theories of international law are all well and good, but the only reason indefensible small island nations remain independent is because they usually aren't worth the trouble of taking them over or the cost of supporting them, and not because of any deeply held convictions over international law.