Very weird, this.

It's not a 'country', a 'state', a 'province', a 'dominion', a 'republic', a 'union', but rather, a "Principality" (???)

Went all over the official site, but didn't see anything about land mass (square kilometers/miles). What IS it? Can't be much of anything if it was an *artificially-created*, as apparently was.

A rock, some landfill, a couple of trees to hold the sod (earth) from eroding off, and a couple of tree houses? A few pup tents on the north shore.

And their 'dollar' is worth $1 US they say. Does Wall Street say so too? They got their own printed currency/coinage? What's their Gross National Product? Do they *have* any natural products/resources? (Besides perriwinkles stuck to the shore rocks, I mean?) Where do they get their electricity from? Good ol' England via underground(sea) cable, windmills, or from a bank of Duracell batteries?

Well, if the Tawainese folks trying to stream their wares unsuccessfully *from* Taiwan, and more recently via Tehran via Holland via wherever, ever set up shop on this humoungous Sealand Continent, I'll just have to sick Streambox VCR after 'em !!

Have A Nice Day.

-- KlingyPoo --

You can actually find most of that information at

http://www.sealandgov.com/

There's also a picture of Sealand available at

http://www.sealandgov.com/images/sealand_sm.jpg

Looks like a charming place to settle down for retirement, doesn't it?

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uuhhhhh.......(okie-dokie)

I thought I'd seen/heard just about everything. These misfits are serious about this (ummmm...) "stuff", aren't they?

Purely Promotional Propaganda. They're looking to make a fast buck, then go back to their day jobs, right?

Jari, *you and I* could do better than *this*!

Actually I think the Sealand has existed for two-three years now as a web hosting location (the "country" itself is 50 years old or so). They host i.e. Tibet's government's website -- something that you can't really do in any other place unless your ISP/country is willing to risk a dispute with People's Republic of China.

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They can handle all of this, sitting atop two cylinders of concrete?

(Wouldn't a couple of stragetically-placed hand-grenades topple the place?). I see a flat hunk of steel sitting on top of 2 hunks of formed-cement. This constitutes a 50-year old 'country'?

KA

Heh, Europe is full of countries that aren't exactly much more than Sealand, but just have longer history to back up their existance. San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein, etc..

I think that it is pretty damn cool idea to actually "rent" a whole country in order to create a safe haven for web sites that aren't necessarily approved in other countries :-)

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You're right of course. <heh-heh> I hadn't thought of that. We've all got an axe to grind with Hollywood for one reason or another dRD, but at least in regards to Film88, Hollywood would likely "nuke" (or at least attempt it) both the 'country' and the streaming scheme if the two ever *did* come together.

It's positively frightening how much far-reaching power the MPA(A) has, with it's international lawyers, sheer financial clobber and political influence - I wonder how long a 'safe haven' such as Sealand would/could last in the face of that? I'd love to see someone 'go-for-it' though. If aD had operations originating out of there, maybe we'd still have TMPGEnc 12a (??)

(Must be a bitch calling for a taxicab or sending out for a Pizza though). :)

K.A.

I wonder how vulnerable their internet connection is? Could they file suit in British court to force the ISP to shutdown their connection?

For all we know they might be using a satellite web link and only have to worry about mains power.

The have several backbone connections AND the satellite links as well, so shutting them down is nearly impossible. And its probably the only web hosting location with an actual firepower to protect the location if someone tries to attack the place :-) Like I said -- not probably the cheapest possible way to start in the ISP business, but definately a funny way :-)

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I wondered how much firepower they have...I would guess a lot.

The costs would be very tough for movie88.com, if you look at the pricelist for the ISP, they charge for the server and for the bandwidth.
1Mbps = 1500/month
256Kbps = 375/Month (Is 256K a good number for streaming a movie at decent quality?)
256Kbps = .008566 / per Minute
Typical Movie is 90 Minutes.
So the bandwith would cost them $0.77 per Movie. If they sell it for $1 per movie that makes it tough to make a profit after their other overhead, and $.77 is just a wild approximation based on 24x7 operation at full capacity.
They probably get a price break for higher volumes.

http://www.havenco.com/products_and_services/rates.html

And if I remember correctly, didn't they offer to pay 30% of the rental charges collected in royalties to the studios as well?

You're right......it wouldn't be a viable undertaking.

-- K.A. --