No walkin’ tha plank at Sealand, arrrrr
So it turns out that Sealand won’t be sold to The Pirate Bay, as I speculated earlier (although to be fair, that was an easy prediction to make). The reasons this deal fell through are many: The Pirate Bay isn’t able to raise nearly enough money, Britain would object to the sale as it would damage their interests (turns out Sealand isn’t totally independent), and Prince Michael of Sealand has a book/movie deal in the works regarding Sealand, which might be put in jeopardy if the micronation is sold to pirates.
So who will buy Sealand? I’m thinking it will eventually be sold, but there’s no way Prince Michael is going to get the US$1,000,000,000 he’s asking for. Sealand is a burnt-out obsolete naval defense platform with some level of autonomy (but not complete independence). Private islands could be had for much cheaper. Private islands are better because they’re real land, not just an anchored platform, they’re larger, and they wouldn’t have claims on them by first-world superpowers. It’s much easier to buy a Polynesian or Micronesian island and use it for illicit purposes; try to do that with Sealand, and Britain is almost guaranteed to re-assert their authority. They’ve only allowed Sealand to remain autonomous because it’s been worthless and harmless. If it started presenting any kind of a threat (including threats to British media conglomerate interests), you can bet it would be taken down.
