What about pirate attacks, acts of war from hostile countries etc.? Actually, also being a sovereign state won't help much if you are small, and I'm not referring to obvious dope-smuggling fronts like Noriega's Panama: in the fifties, the 700-year old Republic of San Marino cancelled plans of opening a casino after Italy sealed its border (the only border San Marino has). Enzo On Thu, 15 Aug 1996, Vincent Cate wrote:
William Knowles <erehwon@c2.org>
Something that I thought would make an excellent data haven would be older offshore oil platforms, [...] You have to wonder how cheap these could sell for just to get them off the oil companies hands?
A floating DataHaven is probably the way to get the ultimate in freedom.
There is someone on Anguilla that bought a used floating oil platform for $1 million. It is big enough for 200 people to live on. It is not here, so I have not seen it.
There is someone else here who says that there are some really old ones that you can get just for hauling them away. Some countries will not let owners just sink them.
You can get Internet via radio links for reasonable prices. And via satellite for almost affordable prices. When Bill Gates 900 satellites get up there it should be very affordable.
-- Vince
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vincent Cate vince@offshore.com.ai http://www.offshore.com.ai/vince/ Offshore Information Services http://www.offshore.com.ai/