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. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."