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Buying a private island doesn't give you sovereignty over it. There's pretty much no land that's not part of a sovereign state these days. Further, the ruling

Buying a private island doesn't give you sovereignty over it. There's pretty much no land that's not part of a sovereign state these days. Further, the ruling is based on an interpretation of Congressional statute, not the Constitution. If American companies began moving their datacenters overseas en masse, Congress could just change the law.

hirsin 10y ago
China's strategy of building their own islands seems to have been overruled as well, although I think the wrinkle of datacenter islands being in (previously?) international waters might be different enough. What happens if an underwater volcano goes off one night, and the next morning there's a new island in international waters? Presumably there wouldn't be any guano to fall prey to the US Guano Islands act [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano_Islands_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano_Islands_Act
- CodeCube 10y ago
  wat ... It's crazy that this is a thing
- marcoperaza 10y ago
  >China's strategy of building their own islands seems to have been overruled as well The rulings of international courts on such matters are irrelevant. Unless someone militarily stops them, or applies enough leverage elsewhere to convince them to stop, they will continue to build the islands and they continue to treat them as Chinese territory. The constant and aggressive American naval presence is the only thing stopping China from claiming the South China Sea as territorial waters.
  - hirsin 10y ago
    I think such rulings would be quite relevant to a private company with no military to speak of. While the Philippines or Japan can't quite tell China to shove off, they could certainly tell Microsoft or Google, and this ruling says that it's quite within their rights to do so.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - marcoperaza 10y ago
      Tell Google to shove off over what? I don't follow. Google building a island, claiming sovereignty, and hosting from there, as opposed to from some third country, would be without consequence regardless of whether their claim to sovereignty is deemed legitimate by some international court.

hirsin 10y ago

China's strategy of building their own islands seems to have been overruled as well, although I think the wrinkle of datacenter islands being in (previously?) international waters might be different enough. What happens if an underwater volcano goes off one night, and the next morning there's a new island in international waters? Presumably there wouldn't be any guano to fall prey to the US Guano Islands act [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano_Islands_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano_Islands_Act

CodeCube 10y ago
wat ... It's crazy that this is a thing
marcoperaza 10y ago
>China's strategy of building their own islands seems to have been overruled as well The rulings of international courts on such matters are irrelevant. Unless someone militarily stops them, or applies enough leverage elsewhere to convince them to stop, they will continue to build the islands and they continue to treat them as Chinese territory. The constant and aggressive American naval presence is the only thing stopping China from claiming the South China Sea as territorial waters.
- hirsin 10y ago
  I think such rulings would be quite relevant to a private company with no military to speak of. While the Philippines or Japan can't quite tell China to shove off, they could certainly tell Microsoft or Google, and this ruling says that it's quite within their rights to do so.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - marcoperaza 10y ago
    Tell Google to shove off over what? I don't follow. Google building a island, claiming sovereignty, and hosting from there, as opposed to from some third country, would be without consequence regardless of whether their claim to sovereignty is deemed legitimate by some international court.