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Friday July 12, 2002 01:00
by C.
The Tibetan Government in Exile is now using a data haven based on an old military installation to try and avoid repressive information control regimes. Where should we put our information?
Havenco was set up on the anti-aircraft tower off the coast off England which has become Sealand through one of those quirks of international law. The history is pretty strange - like a cross between Cryptonomicon and Jonathan Swift.
They have gambling, some quiet financial stuff and now, political information that other countries don't protect, or allow.
Ireland may not need eGovernment - but it does need to accept that copyright, charging for public information and refusing to publish online is an attack on our democracy. Or else we'll all have to move to Havenco.
Comments (1 of 1)
Jump To Comment: 1Havenco is a really good idea but remember that it's untested - if push came to shove Britain would claim sovereignty. When Sealand declared itself independent it was outside UK territorial waters but it's not anymore (they added nine miles a few years ago) and no other countries recognize it's independence. Then again no-one has tried to do anything about it and it'd be difficult to physically get at the servers
However, that's all a bit irrelevent as I'll bet the people that own/run Havenco don't live there full time (so could be prosecuted in the UK unless they take stuff down) and then there's always the option of pulling the satelite link to the servers...
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