June 4, 2000
Rebel Outpost on the Fringes of Cyberspace
By JOHN MARKOFF
|
The New York Times
|
Sealand's claim of sovereignty has never been legally tested.
|
f the mouse roared in cyberspace,
would anyone hear it?
In the annals of Internet history,
June 5, 2000, may be remembered as
the date that a hardy band of true
believers tried to establish the first
independent colony in cyberspace.
On Monday, a small international
group of computer rebels plans to
introduce what they are calling a
data haven, perched precariously on
a World War II military fortress six
miles off England's coast.
They are hoping that the installation, connected to the Internet by
high-speed microwave and satellite
links, will become a refuge from governments increasingly trying to
tame and regulate the Internet.
Their company, known as Havenco, has struck a financial arrangement with a self-proclaimed
prince, Roy Bates, an eccentric retired British army major who in 1968
briefly gained notoriety when he
landed at the abandoned fortress and
declared it a sovereign nation -- the
Principality of Sealand -- outside the
reach of British law.
The Havenco founders are loosely
associated with a movement of
American computer mavens known
as "cypherpunks," a largely libertarian group espousing the idea that
advanced computer encryption technologies can create electronic privacy and provide liberty and freedom from potential government Big
Brothers.
The company intends to offer its
data haven to a diverse clientele that
may wish to operate beyond the
reach of large nations for reasons of
privacy or financial necessity. They
expect their customers to include
people who wish to keep their e-mail
safe from government subpoenas as
well as other businesses seeking to
avoid regulation, like international
electronic commerce, banking and
gambling.
"Technology has made it easier to
move information and hide information," said Sean Hastings, a 32-year-old United States citizen who is the
chief executive and co-founder of Havenco. "Soon it will be impossible to
trace where money is and who has
money, and that will eventually force
governments to move away from income taxes and toward consumption
taxes."
In its bid to offer both security and
sovereignty, however, Havenco has a
formidable task. Computer security
experts generally say no networked
computer systems can be proven to
be perfectly secure -- and e-mail by
its very nature is a two-way communication. Legal experts also said that
while Britain might have done little
to assert jurisdiction over the offshore enclave in the past, any prospect of its use for digital money
laundering, gambling or tax evasion
might quickly force the issue.
Several years ago, as a programmer for a similar effort to create an
offshore data haven on the island of
Anguilla in the British West Indies,
Mr. Hastings sharpened his ideas on
building computer systems that offered what he calls genuine privacy
and security.
While there he designed an anonymous digital currency system intended to help create an efficient
barter system in cyberspace safe
from the world's taxation systems.
But the government of Anguilla
was unwilling to give the assurances
Mr. Hastings felt were necessary to
set up a secure data haven.
And so last year he began his
search for another sympathetic base
of operations, turning to a book
called "How to Start Your Own
Country," from which he learned
about Mr. Bates and his Principality
of Sealand -- a former antiaircraft
bunker sitting in 20 feet of water.
Decades ago, Mr. Bates used the
abandoned concrete fortress, east of
London, as a platform for what was
called pirate radio, operating without license from the British government. He says he is struck by the
parallels between pirate radio and
the idea of a pirate Internet.
"We've had dozens and dozens of
proposals and we've turned them all
down," he said. "This is the first one
that seemed to be really suited to
what we are."
Sealand has had a variety of legal
skirmishes with the British government since 1968, at one point even
firing warning shots at a British naval vessel trying to reach the fortress. It has managed to maintain a
semblance of legal independence, although the issue of sovereignty has
never been formally tested, Mr.
Bates acknowledged.
"I've never had to confront them
directly," he said. "They've always
ducked and dodged the question."
Mr. Hastings said he was in the
final stages of raising $3 million to
start his company, which is incorporated in Anguilla. He said he believed
that Sealand's sovereignty would
stand up to a court challenge, but
some American legal experts are
skeptical.
"Offshore markets have become a
focus of attention recently among the
G-7," the conference of leading industrialized nations, said Michael D.
Mann, a Washington lawyer who is
the former director of international
enforcement for the Securities and
Exchange Commission. He said that
the flaw in the Havenco plan was that
cyberspace markets must still have
points of contact with the world's
conventional economies.
"You can have all the secrecy and
protection in the world as long as you
don't need to write a check or wire a
dollar," he said.
The Havenco executives may find
their haven illusory, said Mr. Mann,
who was involved in a number of law
enforcement actions with investors
who tried to establish offshore havens while he was at the S.E.C.
"What's so ironic about the Internet is, as impersonal as it is, it creates the ultimate paper trail," he
said.
That possibility has not deterred
Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, who
have moved three power generators
to the offshore site. The group is now
installing the finishing touches, including a special room housing hundreds of server computers, and expects to open for business within
weeks.
To forestall some government
alarm, Havenco has established an
"acceptable use" policy banning its
customers from using the service for
sending the unsolicited bulk e-mail
known as spam, mounting attacks on
other computer systems or trafficking in child pornography.
Anything else, however, Mr. Hastings considers fair game, and he said
his tiny cybernation had stockpiled a
year's worth of food, fuel and other
supplies in case of a blockade.
He said he was willing to take a
political stand if necessary and acknowledged that he might become an
exile from United States as a consequence. He said the company was
already looking at several small nations that might shelter similar islands in cyberspace.
Mr. Bates, the 78-year-old ruler of
Sealand, says he does not believe
that his data haven deal will lead to a
confrontation with the larger island
nation next door.
"I wouldn't do anything to offend
England," he said. "I'm an Englishman."
