This is currently just a theoretical question.
If I took a ship to international waters, set up servers on it, and used it to host illegal content could I do that without getting in trouble?
"Illegal content" means movies, TV shows, anime, cartoons, game roms, ebooks, etc.. No porno. Strictly non-porno.
Could I do that without getting taken down like KimCartoon recently did?
Let me know.
Every ship needs to carry the flag of a country (the "flag state" of the ship), and this state defines the laws which are valid on a ship. So if you kill somebody on a ship flying the Swiss flag, you'll be prosecuted in Switzerland, even if that happens somewhere in the pacific ocean. Since copyright infringement is mostly a civil matter, somebody would need to file a lawsuit first.
In theory, there's the possibility for a ship to not fly a flag. That's however bad for a variety of reasons (mostly safety). Here's a question trying to answer what might happen if your ship has no flag. Notably, it does not prevent you from being boarded.
How they would start an investigation over there and whether they would have the workforce to really take you down (assuming you're using various international satelite services) is a different question. But as always: A crime that is hard to prevent doesn't make it less illegal.
Edit: Based on the comments, a thought about the possible revenue of trying this hypothetical.
You will need to refill your fuel and rations once in a while. For this you need to enter a port, where it gets difficult if you don't have a proper registration. So lets use another, properly registered, vessel to transport those to your "warez ship", but that second ship adds to your costs. And you will need quite a bit of fuel to run the generators that power the servers and routers you have on board. If you want to power them all from solar panels, you would need quite a big boat to have reasonable room, but I believe that would be doable. So lets calculate with two 50ft sailboats, properly equipped they're at roughly $1M each. Then you need crew - since it's illegal anyway disregard working regulations, but add hush money - $100k per year. Not including maintenance costs.
I seriously doubt your warez server, running on a slow satellite network and with rather low-power hardware, will provide you with enough revenue to pay all this. It will be much cheaper and easier to rent a server in some existing country with minimal prosecution for internet crimes.
For example, according to German law, a crime happens in Germany and can be prosecuted in Germany if it has its effect in Germany.
So if what you do is illegal according to German law, and the illegal materials are sent to Germany, then they can prosecute you. Laying their hands on you might be difficult if you stay on high sea, but if you touch land there might be an extradition request waiting for you. Other countries have their own rules, but looking at where the crime happens, and not where the perpetrator and his tools are, wouldn't be unusual.
Some countries might not be prepared for this, because 50 years ago before the internet a crime perpetrated in X by a person in Y would have been so rare.
There are practical problems with this approach. Even if you succeed with getting a boat/platform in international waters, you will still be connected to the outside world via the Internet. The peering point will be a in country. The "copyright police" will put pressure on that point/country.
Pirate Radio worked because they were broadcasters that broadcast directly to radios in Britain. Pirate Bay worked because the local government didn't have laws that covered it (see other posts/sites if you want the full story).
If the country that contains your peering point successfully resists the "copyright police", it would be much easier to just setup a colocation facility in that country and skip the whole on a boat piece.
Once you get to large size, hiding your traffic flows becomes hard.
FYI, a lot of Kim Cartoon's servers were just normal colocation servers. He had front ends that hide the location of those servers (one was a Dutch company, the other was an American company based in VA).
As to the original question about getting into trouble. That all depends on you. If you are too small to care about, then no one is going to bother to find you. If you get large enough, the "Copyright Police" will start to pay attention. To get the Kim Cartoon treatment, you will have to very large, very loud, and make a public spectacle of yourself. You will also have to transit to/through a country that has a extradition treaty with the country of the "Copyright Police". It would take something like national secrets (like TS/SCI nuclear/cryptographic stuff) before any military assault would come into play.
If we're focused only on arresting, there could be a loophole there.
The Principality of Sealand was an attempt at creating a "micronation" off the coast of the UK consisting of only a single World War II platform. It was originally used to broadcast pirate radio signals (as in not permitted by the UK). At the time, it was just outside the territory claimed by the UK (it now is considered UK territory). There's this interesting piece
In 1968, British workmen entered the claimed territorial waters of the Principality of Sealand to fix a buoy near the platform. Michael Bates (son of Patty Roy Bates) tried to scare the workmen off by firing warning shots from the platform. As Bates was a British subject at the time, he was called to court on firearm charges after the incident. However, the court said that the platform was outside of British waters and the case could not continue.
Countries have tightened some things up, but, in theory, you could use a non-ship structure and proclaim it as a "country". As long as it existed somewhere on the high seas in a semi-permanent way (i.e. maybe an oil rig moored to the floor) you would most likely be under maritime law. As such, it would make for some novel legal theories, the kind that might make any prosecutor think twice about charging you (plus you're in a place harder to send people to arrest you).
As to avoiding any repercussions, you'll still need Internet access, and it's possible (even probable) you would be cut off eventually, as the companies selling you access would be subject to the laws of the country they were based in (or possibly places they do business, like the European Union).
