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Pirate Bay to Purchase Sealand?
paulraps writes "Notorious Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own nation in an attempt to get around troublesome international copyright laws. The organization, the world's largest bit torrent tracker, has set its sights on Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that has been designated a 'micronation' and claims to be outside UK jurisdiction. With a target price of £500m it won't be cheap, but Pirate Bay says contributors will become honorary citizens."
Pirate Bay would get cut off in a heart beat.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
This reminds me of the plot to Cryptonomican, by Neal Stephenson. If this really is a micronation, and the pirate file sharing thing works out, I wonder if they will expand to hosting other files for money in return for a promise of absolute privacy, i.e., no court orders to turn files over. I think they would make up the money spent buying the 'country' rather quickly. Of course, their servers would be a target for the NSA and every equivalent hunting for files from terrorist and criminal organizations.
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
At current exchange rates, they would need very close to 1 billion dollars to buy Sealand at a price of a little more than 500 million pounds. That would mean that 1 million people would need to donate 1000 dollars each to get the money. I'm not sure they could raise enough cash if all they needed was 1 million to buy it.
Errr, the same thing stopping them doing that sort of thing with the current pirate bay servers. Terrorism and murder is pretty much illegal everywhere.
That didn't stop French Intelligence from blowing up a Greenpeace ship, now did it? And I'm pretty sure that French Intelligence are pussies compared to the **AA.
Oh no... it's the future.
If what they claim is true, i.e. that they aren't doing anything illegal now, why do they need to escape to anywhere ?
Ironically enough, there is one! It's called Steal This Film. Here's a torrent. Maybe this new stuff about Sealand will be in Part 2.
How true. A simple single torpedo from a sub on a "training mission" would mean the end of Sealand. Anonymous and deadly. In reality though, people would find out. It's not like Sealand will have "weapons of mass destruction", and no history to suggest it ever did or ever will (unlike Iraq.)
On the other hand, I think the consequences would be rather severe, as now all small countries who have done nothing wrong will feel that they are targeted. Remember: if your country doesn't have copyright laws, it's not wrong to copy stuff. Many many many things that are illegal in the US are legal elsewhere, and vice versa. Political pressure is not the same as military action.
Couldn't there just be a torrent with all the latest torrents on it? That way you wouldn't have to worry about the sites getting shut down, because nobody is hosting anything. Of course you would always need to distribute the torrent with the list of torrents, but I suspect that would be a lot easier than keeping the website up. Maybe have the torrent with the latest torrents as one of the files include in each torrent.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The problem is that there aren't any islands that aren't already claimed by a country. You might be able to buy property rights to an island, but no country would ever sell you sovereignty. Sealand, on the other hand, has an arguable claim to sovereignty.
You can take your own opinion about the moral implications of the act of copyright infringement, but at least have the brains to call it what it is.
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
Anyone who hands their music to another company and sells them the rights to sell copies, publish and do whatever with it has already relinquished those rights. If maintaining your rights is more important to you than having people actually hear your music, then do what actual professional artists do and only sell one copy to a private owner or museum.
Actually they already won two wars:
r y.html
http://www.seanhastings.com/havenco/sealand/histo
Sealand Fights Off Invaders (Wins War)
In August of 1978, a number of Dutch men came to Sealand in the employ of a German businessman. They were there to discuss business dealings with Sealand. While Roy was away in Britain, these men kidnapped Prince Roy's son Michael, and took Sealand by force. Soon after, Roy recaptured the island with a group of his own men and held the attackers as prisoners of war.
During the time that he held the prisoners, the Governments of the Netherlands and Germany petitioned for their release. First they asked England to intervene in the matter, but the British government cited their earlier court decision as evidence that they made no claim to the territory of Sealand. Then, in an act of de facto recognition of Sealand's sovereignty, Germany sent a diplomat directly to Sealand to negotiate for the release of their citizen.
Roy first released the Dutch citizens, as the war was over, and the Geneva Convention requires the release of all prisoners. The German was held longer, as he had accepted a Sealand Passport, and therefore was guilty of treason. Prince Roy, who was grateful that the incident had not resulted in a loss of life, and did not want to bloody the reputation of Sealand, eventually released him as well.