
Filesharers Want To Build Weather-Balloon-Hosted Download Site - lotusleaf1987
http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2010/10/19/pirates-in-the-sky-filesharers-want-to-build-weather-balloon-hosted-download-site/
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qq66
Wow, the pirates are coming full circle to their intellectual ancestors, and
launching a fleet of vessels!

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petervandijck
That's awesome. When it flies above international waters it won't be
regulated?

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seabee
It can still be regulated/blocked by the countries people live in, just like
with the Pirate Bay.

The only recourse is wireless transmission, like the old pirate radio ships,
but given the state of satellite technology that model would not translate
well.

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jrockway
What countries regulate/block the Pirate Bay without blocking all other
outgoing traffic?

The reality is that people use VPN providers in friendly countries for their
file-sharing now. What you see when you type in thepiratebay to your web
browser has little relation to what is actually happening in the file-sharing
community.

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cmars232
Fascinated with the practicality of this. How do you keep such a balloon at a
stable altitude and position? And what about power generation? Or radiation
hardening?

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cynest
Solar with a battery is probably the best for long durations. I imagine
gyroscopes might be useful for stabilization. Radiation hardening is fairly
simple; most things requiring the shielding can be shielded, with cables
connecting them to antennas. To me the biggest issue would be preventing
government/RIAA (or equivalent by country) from crippling it electronically
from the ground. The server would have to be maintained from the ground, so
any malfunction or bug would be the deadliest threat.

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Qz
This is all so Snowcrash -- welcome to yesterday's science fiction.

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aberkowitz
This is not practical, logical, or cost effective. If this is anything more
than free news coverage, then those involved are idiots.

