Re: Anguilla - A DataHaven?

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 5:55 PM 8/15/96, William Knowles wrote:
>On Thu, 15 Aug 1996, Arun Mehta wrote:
>
>> I'm sure this has come up before, but what would prevent a server
>> being located on a buoy or something at sea outside territorial
>> limits (or when satellites become cheaper, on a satellite itself)
>> offering such services?
>
>Something that I thought would make an excellent data haven would
>be older offshore oil platforms, Their size would allow extended
>living periods, electrcity and communications are in place, They
>are generally built outside of the territorial waters of most
>countries to avoid any damage to the shorelines if oil spilled
>(possibility for becoming its own country?) and with the hoops
>that Shell Oil went through to please Greenpeace with its last
>oil platform.  You have to wonder how cheap these could sell
>for just to get them off the oil companies hands?
>
>Comments or suggestions?

As with offshore buoys, how long do you think such an entity would last?

You mentioned Greepeace...don't forget that the French intelligence
apparatus sunks a Greenpeace ship in a New Zealand harbor. Don't forget the
way the U.S. mined Managua's harbor. And so on.

Think of how any of these schemes are vulnerable to a cheap torpedo,
"anonymously mailed" from several miles away.

Oil rigs, buoys, pirate ships....these are all examples of hopelessly
insecure systems. I could say more, but what's the point?

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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