Pirate Parties Plan To Shoot Site Into Orbit 301
palmerj3 writes "It is almost four years ago that The Pirate Bay announced they wanted to buy the micronation of Sealand, so they could host their site without having to bother about copyright law — an ambitious plan that turned out to be unaffordable. This week, Pirate Parties worldwide started brainstorming about a similarly ambitious plan. Instead of founding their own nation, they want to shoot a torrent site into orbit."
Re:How long will this last? (Score:4, Informative)
Probably only slightly longer than it would have taken for them to get overthrown had they bought Sealand ... which is actually under British rule, regardless of how much they want to pretend its not.
Outer Space Treaty (Score:5, Informative)
Won't work. Read the Outer Space Treaty [wikipedia.org], specifically Article VI. (full text: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty_of_1967#Article_VI [wikisource.org])
In short: if it's launched from Country X, Country X has responsibility for it, whether it was launched by the Country X government or just by some wacky idealists who live there. In practice, this means that spacecraft are no more outside of national laws than seagoing ships are.
Re:Great idea! (Score:3, Informative)
It is as though millions of users cried out in terror and suddenly had their torrents cut off.
Re:Expect it to be shot down almost instantly (Score:4, Informative)
There are rules in space [wikipedia.org].
It's highly unlikely that a national government would expend the military and technical resources necessary to shoot down a satellite, not to mention draw international ire, merely for the sake of placating the copyright lobby. They're big players, but there are limits to even Disney's power.
It's far more likely that a pirate satellite would encourage the copyright cartel to push to expand existing laws to make them more iron-clad regardless of jurisdiction. The Pirate Bay would gain a temporary advantage, but it would likely backfire over the long haul.
Re:Great idea! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sealaunch? (Score:4, Informative)
In the case of Sea Launch, the U.S. requires that American individuals or corporations obtain a license to launch from the FAA, whether they're launching within the U.S. or not. Interesting article on all the legal ramifications here [elsevier.com].
Other countries likely have similar rules. But it just proves the overall point: whether the legally-sketchy activities take place in space or in international waters, whoever is controlling those activities generally lives in an actual country, and the laws of that country can be brought to bear against them.