Has Haven For Controversial Sites Sunk?

from the bye-bye dept

About a year ago, I was wondering what had happened to HavenCo, the well hyped data hosting facility that was to be set up in the "nation" of Sealand, a floating platform off the coast of England, that some claim is its own nation. The idea was that they would set up a co-location facility that would be immune to laws of other nations, and let people host whatever content they wanted. After it was announced, it pretty much disappeared from public view. Then, last year, there was a short story saying that it was still going strong. Looks like that might not be the case any more. The former CTO of HavenCo says he's no longer working for the company, and that it's in a lot of trouble. He claims that the people who control Sealand have become increasingly worried about the content they would host (and turned down Film88.com - an online movie distribution site). He also says that they've had trouble with keeping their connection up, and there are only six customers left of the data center. Doesn't sound particularly promising.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Munich, 4 Aug 2003 @ 4:30pm

    Sorta Like Cryptonomicon?

    I get Wired, but don't remember this story, but reading this blurb reminded me a bit of the book Cryptonomicon - the data hosting facility in that novel was set up in a safe nation specifically for banking (untraceable virtual money). I wonder if either the author or the founders got any ideas from one another? This sounds like an idea that looks good on paper, but won't work in the real world.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 4 Aug 2003 @ 4:33pm

      Re: Sorta Like Cryptonomicon?

      Yeah. HavenCo came out after Cryptonomicon, though, so it sounds like the idea came from there. We pointed this out back in June of 2000 when HavenCo first announced its plans, wondering if they had stolen the idea from Cryptonomicon, and when we would read about them fishing for lost Nazi gold.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.