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Comment by wmboy | Hacker News Reader

So... there would be market for a secure email service that ran on a ship/vessel that was permanently in the middle of international waters?

(might have to have multiple vessel's for redundancy purposes)

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IANAAL, but I'm guessing the U.S. would just pressure your flag state to revoke your license. Then they'll arrest you for piracy or something. Or even better issue a letter of marque and reprisal so private citizens can hunt you down and take your stuff.

Why bring in privateers? They'd complicate it, and mean reneging on public commitments. Just label the boat as terrorist and send the Navy or Coast Guard.

By "better" I just meant it would be "cooler", in the sense of invoking old, rarely used provisions of the Constitution. But you're right, Navy/Coast Guard would be much more effective.

So guarantee you will be regarded as a "terrorist" and then put yourself somewhere in the middle of international waters?

At least when the ship disappeared off the face of the earth it would be easy to figure out what happened.

Pretty sad world we live in that this is entirely realistic.

I suppose, but looking at it another way: for the first time in human history we can imagine a world where this wouldn't be the case. We are closer to that world than we've ever been, even if right now the west is moving away from it again.

People have thought about this, and Sealand actually hosted a very secure datacenter.

The problem is that you have to connect up to the Internet somewhere, and they can always get you there. Either tapping and listening in on sessions, or just plain disconnecting you.

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