The bittorrent file sharing service, The Pirate Bay, is attempting to buy itself a slice of a sovereign nation in order to operate outside the jurisdiction of criminal courts where they may havve violated copyright laws

The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based torrent site, provides access to illegally copied content to an estimate 1.5 million people per day. A court ruling last May which ordered the service to close, following legal action by the Motion Picture Association of America, has so far led to little more than the site going offline for a couple of days. The site temporarily moved to The Netherlands but has since returned to Sweden. In order to avoid further legal action, the site's owners are looking to relocate to a private island outside the jurisdiction of any court, and have announced an interest in relocating to Sealand.

For those of you not au fait with the concept of 'micronations', Sealand was part of the UK's WW2 coastal defence network until being appropriated for pirate radio broadcasts. Sealand, or HM Fort Roughs as it used to be known, falls more than 3 miles from the British Coast, which it puts it outside the jurisdiction of the Royal Navy and HM Liz 2. Nowadays they have their own constitution, flag, and even a parliament of sorts.

It's somewhat a moot point, as many countries don't even acknowledge Sealand's independance, and while the site itself might end up being free from prosecution, people who use the site would still be subject to local laws.

The Pirate Bay have said that if their bids for Sealand fail they will seek out an alternative private island.