Swedish organization The Pirate Bay, the "intellectual property reform group" known for its dedication in both hosting and providing trackers for torrents, is looking for its own country. No, that’s not a typo, not their own county, but their own country. Pirates are rejoicing everywhere. The Pirate Bay hopes they rejoice enough to donate (if they do, they will receive citizenship) in order to help purchase Sealand. The man-made isle is a World War II-era British naval platform off the southern coast of England. It is so south that it is out of British waters.
To truly understand what Sealand is, we’re going to dive in and take out a little bite of history. For the last few decades, the rusting structure has been run as a "principality" by Paddy Roy Bates, the Roy of Sealand. Roy and his family first occupied the “platform country” in 1967. Since then, Sealand has undergone suspicious events regarding its ownership. Roy's son was once kidnapped by some "legitimate business men" who wanted to cut a “deal” for Sealand. In 1968, Roy defended Sealand Rambo-style against the British Navy.
The Pirate Bay is not the first group interested in setting up internet-related activity on Sealand. The delight of having no government interference attracted an Internet co-location service called HavenCo between 2000 and 2003. It was a costly venture: a 1Mbps link cost $1,800 per month, and hardware had to purchased from HavenCo because of security concerns.
It may have been the fire that hit Sealand in 2006, or old age, but King Roy is ready to sell his kingdom to the highest bidder. As of January 15 2007, The Pirate Bay has raised over $13,000 - the asking price is £65,000,000. The Pirate Bay has announced that they will be negotiating with the government of Sealand via email over the next few days. The Pirate Bay’s backup plan: "If we do not get enough money required to buy the micronation of Sealand, we will try to buy another small island somewhere and claim it as our own country."
Link: Principality of Sealand | The Pirate Bay | Neowin Forum Discussion
News source: Ars Technica
To truly understand what Sealand is, we’re going to dive in and take out a little bite of history. For the last few decades, the rusting structure has been run as a "principality" by Paddy Roy Bates, the Roy of Sealand. Roy and his family first occupied the “platform country” in 1967. Since then, Sealand has undergone suspicious events regarding its ownership. Roy's son was once kidnapped by some "legitimate business men" who wanted to cut a “deal” for Sealand. In 1968, Roy defended Sealand Rambo-style against the British Navy.
The Pirate Bay is not the first group interested in setting up internet-related activity on Sealand. The delight of having no government interference attracted an Internet co-location service called HavenCo between 2000 and 2003. It was a costly venture: a 1Mbps link cost $1,800 per month, and hardware had to purchased from HavenCo because of security concerns.
It may have been the fire that hit Sealand in 2006, or old age, but King Roy is ready to sell his kingdom to the highest bidder. As of January 15 2007, The Pirate Bay has raised over $13,000 - the asking price is £65,000,000. The Pirate Bay has announced that they will be negotiating with the government of Sealand via email over the next few days. The Pirate Bay’s backup plan: "If we do not get enough money required to buy the micronation of Sealand, we will try to buy another small island somewhere and claim it as our own country."
Link: Principality of Sealand | The Pirate Bay | Neowin Forum Discussion News source: Ars Technica
That is, until the lobbyists from the RIAA, MPAA, etc, & other local equivalents put enough pressure on their governments to deem the isle haven a threat. Of which it will then be sunk.
sealand is too small to actually really let more than a few ppl live there, so that is practically a void argument
still... there are other countries that are not thaaat strict about such matters
-fm
sealand is too small to actually really let more than a few ppl live there, so that is practically a void argument
still... there are other countries that are not thaaat strict about such matters
-fm
You could always have dual Sealand/UK nationality...
sealand is too small to actually really let more than a few ppl live there, so that is practically a void argument
still... there are other countries that are not thaaat strict about such matters
-fm
You could always have dual Sealand/UK nationality...
i know, i was just making the point that the nationality wont give u any practical benefits, as since even just visiting that country is expensive, there's no thing such as a ferry that will get u there, they used to have a regualar helicopter connection to Belgium, but that's no more neither.
i wasnt trying to say that it'd be a problem to have the citizenship. it's just you dont have practical benefits.
-fm
Not that the UK would recognize your Sealand citizenship since they legal consider Sealand to be the property of the Royal Navy. (It's actually a sea fort built by the British during the second world war.)
And then there's the ever-present danger of Sealand rusting to death and toppling over in the next big storm, but I digress.
whats next? pirateworld?
woooo, down withRIAA-fm
That amounts to what? Two tanks of gas for the helicopter required to get there.
But .sl is already taken - Sierra Leone
oh and... actually its not required to have an own country to run that... but oh well...
maybe they just want the country to be leet lol
-fm
I can see it now. First month there "Yay! We did it, torrents forever!!!!!!". Flash forward 3 months later "Sorry guys, we gotta move it all back now, but it was fun while it lasted.....".
That will be shortly before the RIAA/MPAA persuades England and/or America to invade Sealand and take it over (a country can still be invaded you know, even if it's a micro-nation).
This should be interesting.
I hope RIAA's boat goes the same way as the "Rainbow Warrior" (sunk by the French foreign intelligence agency)
2:RIAAland forms a military.
3: RIAAland declares war on Sealand.
The Pirates (Cyber Rebels {Jedi's} ) against the Evil Empire (RIAA/MPAA {The Dark Side} ).
I can see Bill Gates buying Sealand and naming it Vista Island !
@Neobond - I bet you 10 of our fine UK pounds that'll be the US who invades first because they see Sealand as a terrorist/extremist threat lol Get the Irish and/or Celts on-board.....there's way more of us than there is anybody else around that area!
ChocIST
its in international waters acording to there website lol
There's more truth to that than I'm comfortable with. It would be so neat just to be able to claim citizenship, however shaky/gray it might be, but who wants to risk getting unwanted attention from their own government? The possibility of state sponsored harassment is enough to put me off the idea.
Bush: Aight soldier, let's invade sealand.
Indeed!!!, i wonder if they raise enough this is possible?
What is a nation?
Ok, it is not that LARGE a body of people, but they have unity and seek to maintain a government. Seems like a nation to me.
Though this is a tremendous political mess.
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