Notorious file-sharing site The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own country and turn it into a copyright-free piracy paradise.

Currently based in Sweden, The Pirate Bay uses BitTorrent technology to let visitors share videos, games, software and music - mostly without each work's copyright holder's permission.

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This week it launched Buy Sealand, a campaign to buy the former World War 2 gun platform now known as the Principality of Sealand, located six miles from the UK coast.

The island is reportedly for sale after its infrastructure was badly damaged by fire in summer 2006.

The Pirate Bay plans to fund the £100m sale through donations from users who will automatically become citizens of the principality.

"It should be a great place for everybody, with high-speed internet access, no copyright laws and VIP accounts to The Pirate Bay," the group said in a statement on the Buysealand.com website.

If the bid for Sealand fails, The Pirate Bay plans to look elsewhere. "We will try to buy another small island somewhere and claim it as our own country," it stated.

The Pirate Bay is under pressure from the US government, and was raided by Swedish police last year. However attempts to close the site have so far failed.

www.buysealand.com
www.sealandgov.org

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