Death of a Data Haven (the story of Sealand) | Hacker News Reader

Death of a Data Haven (the story of Sealand)

arstechnica.com

132 pointsallenbrunson14 comments

Ryan Lackey is a frequent commenter here, and it seems he just submitted the longer version of this story.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3766543

This shorter article is definitely more accessible. (same author as the law review; it just doesn't go into the interesting legal theory)

You can't escape the government (or more specifically, "a government")... not while you're on Earth. The best and easiest way to do what you want is to identify the persons/companies in power and persuade them to give you that freedom, offering something useful for them in return.

It's really not that hard, and easier than establishing a new nation in the middle of nowhere, as attractive as that might sound...

Yeah, all the money going into maintaining Sealand could have just gone to bribes in a low cost-of-living third-world country to far greater effect.

It's funny you mention that - we studied Sealand as part of my Public International Law course about 5 years ago, and that's pretty much the conclusion that we all came to. The "best" things a country can do are only worthwhile with international recognition. Even Tuvalu (population c.10,000) gets its own TLD (.tv), which has been its prime source of income for some time.

And tokealu (.tk). :)

Even more specifically, the US government. There are many governments on Earth you can escape from, but not the US. If they want you bad enough, they'll get you.

Timing or the title really does make a difference. Posted the same link 12 hours ago. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3764331

well, crud! I honestly did not mean to create a duplicate. I figured trying to submit this would lead to the inevitable earlier submission, but that didn't happen. I guess we used slightly different versions of the URL.

Nah its good because of you it got to the front page.

As it's been said before, if the government (especially the US government) wants you - they're going to get you. For the most part, even servers in third world nations (where it would be perfectly legal to host whatever you're hosting) would still buckle under the pressure of a US-3rd world standoff. Your best bet is proliferating your assets to multiple areas.

Actually The Pirate Bay had an interesting idea about this. They are planning on launching their servers high up into the atmosphere. An elegant solution imo.

To complete the story of the tower when it was still a fort: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunsell_Forts

A Sealand/HavenCo timeline

1942: Roughs Tower constructed off the coast of East Anglia.

1948: Roughs Tower abandoned by English government following World War II.

1966: Pirate radio entrepreneur Roy Bates occupies Roughs Tower.

1967: Bates declares an independent Principality of Sealand.

1968: Bates acquitted of British firearms charges, causing Britain to adopt policy of leaving him alone.

1978: German-led coup takes control of Sealand on August 10; Roy Bates retakes Sealand in dawn helicopter raid on August 15.

1987: Britain extends territorial waters to 12 miles, encompassing Sealand. Sealand claims its own 12-mile territorial waters.

1999: Sean Hastings and Ryan Lackey conceive of idea for HavenCo.

2000: HavenCo launches to massive press hoopla.

2002: HavenCo taken over by Sealand after commercial failure and mounting tensions.

2006: Sealand badly damaged in generator fire.

2008: HavenCo website goes offline.

2009: Sealand launches Twitter account.

you are nobody until you 'launch' a twitter account

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