If the latest attempt by internet file sharers to escape the long arm of the law is to be believed, the lawyers must be rubbing their hands with glee.

A debate is ongoing among the sharers community about launching a server into space where they could host Pirate Bay style file-sharing services outside the jurisdiction of any pesky courts with their tedious copyright infringement rules.

Pirate Bay, whose owners are appealing a one year jail sentence and $2m fine for llegal-file sharing, proposed buying Sealand, a big metal platform in international waters off the British mainland of dubious legal status, which in theory would put any TPB operation outside the remit of any European court.

More recently the Swedish Pirate Party said that if it won a seat in the country's parliament it would host the Pirate Bay on parliamentary servers, which enjoy some immunity from Swedish laws. Alas, the party didn't win any seats at the Swedish 
general election.

But the idea of having a file-sharing service based beyond the law is still being discussed.

Ideas include putting a server at sea (pirate radio style) has been mentioned, as has basing a website in a balloon floating above the earth, and the slightly more ambitious 'put a Pirate Bay satellite into space' plan. Others have proposed setting up a crowd sourcing page to raise funds for such an initiative.

Of course, given The Pirate Bay has managed to stay online despite numerous civil and criminal court rulings against it, and various attempts to seize its servers, they might want to hold off stocking up on pill sized hot pockets just yet.

Additional reporting by CMU Network

Photo - Nasa