[Fsf-friends] Re: PlayFair project

[Mahesh T. Pai]

Imran William Smith said on Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 12:46:04AM +0800,:

 > Given significant  funds, you could  try hosting it in  Sealand, an
 > offshore oil platform that declared itself an

Funny, how often history repeats.

In the early  days of commercial radio broadcasts,  when Her Majesty's
government  sought to  regulate transmissions  from the  English soil,
`smart'  businessess  simply  hired  a  ship, anchored  about  a  safe
distance outside  the territorial waters, and  transmitted merrily, un
shackled by all regulations.

IIRC, to this day, you need  to register your radio receivers (what we
call the transistor  in India) and televisions in  England. Correct me
if  I  am  wrong. Even  a  few  years  back,  we  too had  this  lousy
requirement,   till  some  under-secretary   decided  to   change  the
rules. Another petty  IAS officer can come along  and decide to revive
that.

 > independent country, runs high  security web hosting and, according
 > to their website,

Do thay have an army? Navy? AWACS? A `shock & awe' proof military?

 > 'Sealand currently has no regulations regarding copyright, patents,

Excellent. But the trouble is, most countries will get at its citizens
if they violate domestic laws even while in foreign lands. 

If I. W.  Smith comes to  India and does something which is an offence
in Malaysia, his govt. will wait till he returns ... 

Ditto  for Mahesh  T Pai  finding  some inconvenient  Indian rule  and
deciding to visit Malaysia to get around the inconvenience.

 > Ultimately I believe  this will happen to everything  - money moves
 > to   'offshore'  financial  havens,   internet  content   moves  to
 > 'offshore'   internet  havens,  cloning   research  will   move  to
 > 'offshore' biotech havens...

A well known Malayalam poet penned these words:-

`Change the rules, else the rules will change you'.

-- 
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  Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M.,                   
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  Kerala, India.                          
                                          
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