How to avoid Hollywood copyright mafia: buy your own island

Sealand: a country without copyright laws?

Swedish film sharing website The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own island in an attempt to circumvent international copyright laws.

The "island" of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of southern England, was settled in 1967 by an English major, Paddy Roy Bates.

Pirate bay- the worlds largest bit torrent group - has set up a campaign to raise money to buy Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that has been designated a 'micronation', and claims to be outside the jurisdiction of the UK or any other country.

So far the buy Sealand campaign has raised US$13,714.

Bates proclaimed Sealand a state, issuing passports and gold and silver Sealand dollars and declaring himself Prince Roy.

The issue of what jurisdiction applies for copyright on the internet is still largely untested, although the general view is courts will uphold an action even if the online activity harms an entity in that courts jurisdiction.

According to Canadian Tech law professor Michael Geist: "Simply put, courts in all countries are inclined to assert jurisdiction over online activity, wherever it originates, so long as harm is experienced locally and the sense is that the party responsible either knew or ought to have known that the harm was a likely consequence of their actions. This approach has been applied by French courts in cases involving the online availability of Nazi memorabilia, by U.S. courts in cases involving copyright and online gambling, and by British and Australian courts in cases involving online defamation."