yo-ho yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me at myninjaplease

All I have to say about this is:

This is absolutely ridiculous [and great]. No, there’s no Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom here - or any other actors playing pirates, or even real pirates [at least not the peg-leg having, eye patch wearing, ship having type]. What I am talking about here is The Pirate Bay, a torrent site currently based in Sweden [or one of the other countries that has basically no internet piracy laws]. They’re currently in negotiations to ‘acquire’ the micronation of Sealand [they can’t actually ‘purchase’ it legally, as principalities cannot be sold - but the family in control of the small nation are taking bids for a ‘transfer of ownership’] - off the cost of England.

Here’s some history on Sealand, from the nation’s website:

Sealand was founded as a sovereign Principality in 1967 in international waters, six miles off the eastern shores of Britain. In late June of 2006, the island suffered a devastating fire which destroyed much of the country’s administrative centre and the main power generation facility which serves its population and industries. Fortunately, back-up systems exist which permit its activities to continue but the disaster has compromised significantly the quality of life of its inhabitants and the continued development of the island’s economic and social growth.

The history of Sealand is a story of a struggle for liberty. Sealand was founded on the principle that any group of people dissatisfied with the oppressive laws and restrictions of existing nation states may declare independence in any place not claimed to be under the jurisdiction of another sovereign entity. The location chosen was Roughs Tower, an island fortress created in World War II by Britain and subsequently abandoned to the jurisdiction of the High Seas. The independence of Sealand was upheld in a 1968 British court decision where the judge held that Roughs Tower stood in international waters and did not fall under the legal jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. This gave birth to Sealand’s national motto of E Mare Libertas, or "From the Sea, Freedom" [source].

So basically, The Pirate Bay’s plan is to get their hands on this micronation - and use it as a new base of operations for their torrent site. The thinking here is that if they control the country, then they can simply have no laws regarding internet piracy and downloading, and allow themselves to serve torrents to anybody who wants to use the service.

My two thoughts on this [other than how incredibly gangster this move is] are that, 1] this opens the door for other companies to come up with similar plans - while a torrent site is barely hurting anyone, this could be done by a more dangerous and nefarious group, and/or 2] the US or Britain, or someone, invades / cuts the power / kills their internet…whatever - shuts the whole operation down leaving The Pirate Bay stuck with an old British naval platform.

Either way, I’d like to give it up to the [future] Pirates of Sealand - good luck, my ninjas.