News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites. Parent comment

Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites by josu on Saturday March 10, 2018 @01:29AM (#16557397)
>There were private companies that basically owned some 3rd world countries in the 20th century. This situation probably still exists to some extent.

Just one example that never seizes to amaze me:

By 1803, at the height of its rule in India, the British East India company had a private army of about 260,000—twice the size of the British Army.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites by codedokode on Saturday March 10, 2018 @06:15AM (#16558055)
Was East India Company really independent from the government? Wikipedia says [1] in 18th century the government effectively had control over those territories.

I think the idea was to allow private investors to colonize new territories and later seize control from them.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company#East_India_...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites by marcosdumay on Saturday March 10, 2018 @10:19AM (#16558768)
> Was East India Company really independent from the government?

It had an army, larger than the one from its home country. AFAIK, it was officially not independent, but what difference does the official title make?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites by PeterisP on Saturday March 10, 2018 @08:12PM (#16561121)
The fact that nominally WIC "had" the army doesn't necessarily meant that in the case of conflicting orders it would obey WIC, as the Indian armies were run by British officers who also had sworn loyalty to the King/Queen.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:FCC Accuses Stealthy Startup of Launching Rogue Satellites by codedokode on Sunday March 11, 2018 @12:43AM (#16561847)
I think it was not independent, it might be just a trick to make government not responsible if soldiers did something bad.
[ Parent | on HN ]