Obstructing airspace is a pretty serious issue. Unlike copyright law in general, there will be absolutely no absolutely no legal ambiguity if one of their machines is a public safety problem. That's hefty fines or jail time with little chance of public sympathy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace_class_%28United_State...
Pedantic niggle regarding TFA: Putting a server in a balloon is nothing at all like achieving orbit. An object in orbit is both high and fast. Really high (160km) and really fast. (7.8km/s) 7.8 kilometres per second is 17,000 miles per hour.
A server in a balloon is not in orbit in much the same way that a toddler in a tricycle is not a F1 car.
We calculated that for a 100m rail gun and a 0.5 kilogram payload you'd need to feed it about a 100 MW power source (over about a tenth of a second) to accelerate it to the necessary 7.8 km/s. That doesn't include the energy needed to get it to altitude.
Naturally, if TPB could actually put something into orbit on a commercially viable basis, they could probably afford to fund their pirate service as a teeny part of the Enormous Space Freighting Corporation that would naturally to ensure... just sayin'.
The usual way to power railguns (or particle accelerators) is with giant high-voltage capacitors, which can discharge their energy very quickly. I forget the term of art used for this particular kind of capacitor, unfortunately. Startram suggests using superconducting magnetic energy storage, which has apparently become practical recently; and giant homopolar generators with flywheels are another (low-voltage) alternative.
Any attempt to launch a "flying server" in "uncontrolled" airspace will be met instantly with one of the following measures by pretty much any country:
1. If it is assessed as a threat by whatever definition the government in question decides to use, and it is either in geo-stationary orbit above a country or in high altitude, it will be forcibly removed by the air force. (This is why we don't park satellites over Russia. They can and will assert their authority over their airspace and everyone will agree with them)... U2 anyone?
2. If it is low enough to be tethered to the ground, it will most likely fall under local zoning laws and/or within restricted airspace, and will be dealt with pretty damn quick as a hazard, regardless of intent.
3. If it isn't tethered to the ground and also in the middle of nowhere, its "broadcasting" more than likely violates a number of existing laws, and it will be deemed illegal and shut down, but the air force if necessary.
In short, it's probably a lot easier to find a "friendly" government and host a normal server in that country than it is to launch balloons that will most certainly be temporary, or "accidentally" flown into, perhaps during a "training exercise". And no, unless TPB is now a nation, it is not an "act of war".
Unless there's been some extremely unusual geographical developments recently that I haven't heard of, there's no way for a GEO satellite to orbit over Russia.
You are of course correct. By "park" I wasn't intending to imply true geo-stationary orbit, rather "object not moving in relation to the ground", which would need to be done with self propulsion.
Bad (and incorrect) use of the term on my part. Cheers for pointing it out.
In practice, in the UK, anything under 7 kg flown under 400 ft and within 500 m of the operator is legal without any certification or permission from anyone. It's possible that if you chose to fly your servers over no territory (international waters), and stayed out of accepted airways, then you'd have a little more leeway.
But, like the article hints at, even unlicensed radio frequencies aren't free and as the LightSquared[1] issues that have recently been making news, sending radio signals from space over a designated frequency still has it's own set of problems.
[0] http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/qujkt/if_a_rich_m...
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightSquared#Interference_issue...
36 000 feet = 11km.
You can launch a lot of equipment with a single weather balloon and a styrofoam box. I've been there done that: http://nearspace.0x58.com/