The Principality of New Media

Roy Bates bought in 1967 an old WWII sea fort and claimed independence from the Brits, a man after our own heart. The structure is just two towers with a platform between them, rising out of the sea. A nice home with a sea view in every window.

The Principality of Sealand is a micronation located on HM Fort Roughs,
a former Maunsell Sea Fort located in the North Sea
10 km (six miles) off the coast of Suffolk, England

- Wikipedia

I've always been fascinated by micro nations in general. The idea that one man (or woman I suppose) can claim an area as his own invokes an ancient tribal sense of survival in me. While at the same time raising questions about the nature of ownership. What is it that makes us want to break free of the shackles of society and go it alone? Certainly not everyone wants this but for those of us that do? I'm sure there's a good answer and I could probably make a pretty good go at it, but Jesus Christ I don't want to get a headache.


The coolest part of this little Principality occurred a couple of years ago when a start up company called HavenCo. tried to make Sealand into a data hub. Being only three miles off the coast of England it seemed like a perfect spot to store data and ship it over to England while bypassing many English laws.

And that is awesome.

But it feel through apparently and now we don't get a little island of pirate dreams. Maybe...

This year The Principality of Sealand when up for sale. With a six figure price tag it wasn't cheap but it opened up the sweet possibility. The torrent site Piratebay.org started taking donations to buy the little make shift WWII landing post thing and turn it into a hub of illegal (well not in TPOS) content.

And that's where I get even more excited.

First off, Pirate Bay's attempt didn't gain much momentum before it finally died, but it did open up the possibility that for the first time people could legally get any movie, music or pron of any type from a giant off shore data hub. And that just sounds amazing.

But really, what it does bring up, and what I really want to discuss is the idea of information exchange in the 21st century. The Internet is here to stay unless there is some catastrophic disaster (which probably isn't as unlikely as you would think). So it makes one wonder how we will distribute our media in the coming years. What is an industry that is dependent on sales going to do in the face of growing access to free content? The age of studio/label/network control is coming to an end, at least in its current form. With online distribution turning more and more serious and the ability to produce quality content for cheaper and cheaper, someone had better figure out how to make some money!

Sure you've got iTunes, but who uses that all that much? Well probably a lot of people. Some labels are talking about providing a subscription service to allow you to ddownload whatever you want for a monthly fee, which is probably the best idea I've heard yet. And it makes me think that one day in the future we'll all just have everything we ever wanted hooked up to our credit cards or some form of it and just go about our lives as if everything is free and just paying a monthly fee.

The future is bright for those of us who want to take a big slice of the pie home with us. In the spirit of Sealand, each and everyone of us can create their own Principality and make something of it in the 21st century.

I'm keeping my eye on the sea view.