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LONDON (AP) _ Principality of Sealand: founded 1967. Head of
state: Prince Roy. Official language: English. Currency: Sealand dollar.
Location: a World War II gun platform anchored to the seabed some six miles
off England's east coast.
International profile: not much to speak of.
But all that could change this fall when a team of Internet pioneers invited
onto the rebel principality launches what is billed as the world's first
"data haven" _ a pirate e-communications link promising complete
privacy and no government interference in e- mails, online financial
transactions and Web sites.
HavenCo, the Anguilla-registered company behind the venture, says the
combination of Sealand’s declared independence from Britain, sophisticated
encryption techniques and the anything-goes attitude of Sealand ruler Roy
Bates will give customers an unprecedented level of freedom and security.
For nations increasingly trying to assert some control over the Internet,
this self-proclaimed sovereign principality _ two concrete towers connected
by an iron platform standing in about 30 feet of water in the North Sea _
could become a real headache.
"We are the first place on Earth where people are free to conduct
business without someone looking over their shoulder," boasts HavenCo
spokesman Bill Scannell.
Whether this libertarian venture can succeed remains to be tested.
Law experts and Information Age pundits say Sealand’s tenuous claim to
independence _ not to mention the borderless, anarchic nature of the Internet
_ raise a host of legal questions.
While Britain has so far watched silently, government officials insist that
Sealand erected by Britain in 1940 as a base to shoot down Nazi bombers,
abandoned after the war and taken over by Bates in the 1960s _ is still part
of the United Kingdom.
"The U.K. does not recognize Sealand as an independent state and we
believe no other country does either," Foreign Office spokesman Robin
Twyman says.
The Home Office, the British agency responsible for law enforcement, says it
expects Sealand and any business operating on it to follow British laws,
including a bill expected to go into effect this fall that would allow the
government to monitor Internet traffic.
Authorities concede, however, that no decision has yet been made about how to
enforce the law on the maverick sea fortress, which has operated pretty much
as it likes since Britain unsuccessfully attempted to reclaim it in 1968.
A British judge ruled at the time that the court didn't have jurisdiction
over Sealand because it lies some three miles outside the United Kingdom's
territorial waters. Sealand has since
issued its own passports, stamps and currency _ the latter bearing the face
of Bates' wife, Joan.
Britain responded by extending its territorial waters to encompass the
structure, originally erected in international waters, but has otherwise
shown little interest.
HavenCo seems undaunted by suggestions its venture may provoke Sealand’s
giant neighbor into reasserting its authority.
"The British forces won't come against me," says Bates, a retired
British army major who adopted the title Prince Roy of Sealand after hoisting
a red, white and black flag over the fortress in 1967. "I'm an
ex-soldier and did a lot of service in hard times. I'm an Englishman and my
family are English."
"We wouldn't do anything to harm England in the slightest way,"
vows Bates, who says he was attracted to the Internet venture because of his
past involvement in pirate radio.
"We might do things they don't like too much, but that is only because
we believe in freedom," he adds.
HavenCo is the brainchild Sean Hastings, an American Internet
entrepreneur/programmer who already has moved onto the site, where he works
in a circular control room reached by a U-boat style ladder below sea level.
The company has quietly started work, with a full-scale launch scheduled for
Sept. 1.
Scannell says HavenCo hopes to attract financial institutions and other
electronic commerce groups, including gambling businesses, which may want to
avoid regulations, tax requirements and government eavesdropping.
The only things forbidden: unsolicited bulk e-mails, child pornography and
the use of Sealand to launch malicious hacker attacks.
"What people use our service for _ other than those three things _ we
don't have a problem with," Scannell says.
The loose rules shouldn't attract a flood of interest from criminal gangs or
terrorists, he insists.
"We believe strongly in unfettered individual freedom, particularly in
the area of electronic communications," the company says in its
promotional material. "Free communication can never be a crime, and by
itself can never hurt anyone."
The way HavenCo works is simple: Customers must purchase a host computer
server _ for between $3,000 and $10,000 _ and pay an additional monthly
rental fee of about $1,500.
Some groups, such as Tibet Online, the Internet base for the Tibetan's
government in exile, will be offered free assistance as a community service.
Yaman Akdeniz, director of the watchdog group CyberRights and Cyber
Liberties, is intrigued by the company's bid to buck Big Brother.
But he says he remains unconvinced it will work _ or even that the Internet
should be completely free of regulation.
"We don't completely want the Internet to be out of the reach of
government," says Akdeniz, who runs his own site out of Canada, where
Internet regulations are less strict than in Britain. "There are laws
online and we agree that there should be laws online. What we don't want is
laws that go further than they need to."
Akdeniz also says he is puzzled why HavenCo has sought so much publicity for
its venture.
"What we normally suggest as libertarians is if you want to do something
like that, you do it quietly," he says. "You don't tell people,
'Come and get us.'"
Scannell says HavenCo is prepared for trouble, and will route its data on the
Internet to avoid censorship. Part of the plan: establishing fiber-optic
connections through Britain and the Netherlands to prevent any one country
from being able to shut it down.
Scannell refuses to disclose how many people will be based on Sealand to run
the business and says access to the fortress will be severely restricted.
Even customers will be not allowed uninvited, and most will be discouraged
from visiting, he says.
The technical team has also stocked up on food to survive a siege _ a tactic
Britain used successfully against boats operating illegal pirate radio
stations in the North Sea in the 1960s.
Potentially more damaging than being forcibly isolated may be the odd nature
of the Internet itself, said Graham Smith, a London-based Internet lawyer.
"Because it is everywhere doesn't mean it is nowhere," he says.
"Data _ bits and bytes _ may be flying across borders but, at the end of
the day, people and assets have to be somewhere. And that is when good,
old-fashioned terrestrial laws can come out and bite."
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On the Net:
HavenCo: http://www.havenco.com
Sealand: http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/Sealand
Cyber Rights and Cyber-Liberties: http://www.cyber-rights.org
Keywords: International
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