
The Real Pirates Of Silicon Valley? - nickfrost
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/the-real-pirates-of-silicon-valley/
======
Swizec
As a foreigner wanting to come to Silicon Valley some day I feel this ship
doesn't solve any of my problems.

There is no need for physical proximity, at least not in the slave kind as is
offered here, the only reason I want to physically move to the US is the
ability to get off my computer at any time and meet cool people for coffee or
whatever.

Being stuck on a ship solves that problem no better than being on a different
continent.

~~~
steelaz
He mentioned business visit (B-1) visa, which is much easier to get. Also, if
you live in one of 35 countries that participate in Visa Waiver Program, you
don't even need a visa for a short term visit.
<http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html#2>

~~~
Swizec
Sure, but I'm on a freaking boat! This hardly facilitates a quick coffee meet
for an hour after lunch.

~~~
Kavan
You we will sleep on the boat and commute into work.

Being from the UK you get 90 days in the US, then you need to do a visa run
out of the country and can then come back. I think as long as you are being
paid by an non US business immigration don't mind.

Perhaps instead of a trip to Mexico or Canada a night on the boat would
suffice?

------
rmc
_The sea platform was its own country called Sealand, with its own passports,
currency, etc_

That's a bit of a stretch. Sealand never really was any sort of
internationally recognised country that seriously printed its own money or
anything that serious.

------
kokey
As a foreigner outside of the US, I like this idea. There are many of us who
are already strong earners but don't have anywhere near the million dollars
required for an entrepreneur visa. In other words we probably can afford to
sustain a nice ship. Getting a visa to visit the US is pretty easy, and
staying on the US mainland and attending meetings, conferences, etc. are
practical. We're just not allowed to work there.

------
pellias
Will this work ? As mentioned, its in international waters outside the
jurisdiction of the United States. Any gangster or real pirates can just board
their ship and wreak havoc ?

They'll need security staff to protect the ship then ?

~~~
knowtheory
I would have a more pressing concern. If this ship is outside US waters and
jurisdiction, under whose law and authority would they operate?

What's stopping them from just stealing all your startup secrets? Forming rape
squads? Ransoming you for your all of your family's worth?

How are disputes settled? Do they just throw people overboard?

Sure there are workable systems which would lead to some predictability in a
culture/situation like this, but that doesn't and probably can't guarantee
equitability and/or fairness. Sure the US government doesn't provide either
equitability or fairness, but they do try their hardest to provide stability.
You can count on the stupid shit that is going to go wrong to go wrong, and
there is often recourse when someone does you wrong.

I don't see how you could guarantee things won't go tits up in these bizarre
libertarian "paradises" a la bioshock (well, okay, minus the splicers).

~~~
wisty
tldr: They have to fly a flag, and follow the laws of whatever country's flag
they are flying.

Under The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, they would be in a
US Exclusive Economic Zone - between 12 and 200 nautical miles of the coast,
so no fishing or mining without US permission. As it's not Territorial waters
(up to 12 nautical miles), US law will not apply, but there are international
laws against Piracy in the High Seas which do. Of course, that only protects
you from people who come from another boat.

As for what happens _on_ the boat, it's governed by the laws of the country
that they choose to be registered under. Let's say Panama. But they still have
to follow some legal system. Panama law is based on Spanish traditions, and is
probably acceptable.

------
buro9
If a person has trouble getting a US work visa, wouldn't that person also have
trouble freely travelling in and out of the USA?

In which case, how do they get to the seastead? It seems that they would need
a ferry, but does that ferry port have passport facilities and act as an
international port? And if you're on the seastead for a long period of time
and US access required a visa, how do you now renew that visa seeing that you
couldn't land in the US without it and there is no US Embassy on the seastead?

Or more plainly... what problem is this solving for whom? It doesn't seem to
solve the problem for anyone who is unable to get into the USA without a visa.

~~~
vidarh
I'm Norwegian, and live in the UK. I can travel to the US on the visa waiver
program for up to 90 days at the time. At one point I worked for a US company
for three years, and travelled into the US for meetings every 6-8 weeks. A
couple of additional questions because of the huge number of stamps from SFO
in short timeframe was all the hassle I ever got on entry.

Yet getting a work visa was still hard enough that we gave up trying.

~~~
buro9
That makes sense, thanks for sharing.

------
jholman
Wow, awesome claim in the third graf:

 _"one can imagine how similar ships could provide low cost healthcare all
around the world by operating out in the open waters free from the various
laws that restrict the ability for inexpensive medical treatments through
competitive pricing"_

So, if I read correctly, this is asserting that medicine is so over-regulated
an industry, in developed countries 'all around the world', and so anti-
competitive, that the introduction of unregulated competitive for-profit
hospital ships would lower prices (for market-rate users)? Despite the
obviously higher costs of running a hospital on a ship, vs running it on land,
from a strictly logistical standpoint?

I guess it's conceivable. I admit I do hear these rumours about U.S. medicine
and malpractice insurance, and also that the U.S. spends more on healthcare
than civilized nations while still getting lower quality of care (all rumours
for which I have no citations). But the weird part there is that, according to
those rumours, the countries that outperform the U.S. all have more
regulation, not less, so that doesn't fit. Also, medical tourism is a real
thing, so maybe the same market forces could be exploited on a hospital ship.
But then again maybe not, because I'd guess that some of those market forces
include doctors and lab techs who (relative to the U.S.) have really cheap
living expenses.

Anyway. On the one hand, on the face of it, I find the idea that hospital
ships could lower prices laughable. On the other hand, maybe I should keep an
open mind.

------
dandv
I really wish the media included links to the FAQs for both Blueseed and
Seasteading.

<http://blueseed.co/faq.html>

[http://www.seasteading.org/about-seasteading/frequently-
aske...](http://www.seasteading.org/about-seasteading/frequently-asked-
questions)

------
EponymousCoward
Charles Symoni (sp, I know) used to float the Intentional Programming team
around on his yacht for weeks at a time. I think it was mainly to increase
productivity though.

------
sskates
Hopefully this can also act as a signal to the federal government about how
costly the lack of immigration reform is. I certainly hope we see a real
solution sooner rather than later.

