Earthmen rule against moon real estate bidBEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese appeals court has upheld a ban on a company from selling land on the moon, ruling that "celestial bodies" could not be anyone's property, state media said on Saturday
Lunar Embassy to China, a Beijing-based company that sold plots of lunar land to individuals, sued the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce which revoked its business licence and fined it 50,000 yuan (3,300 pounds) in October 2005.
Haidian District People's Court ruled against the company in November 2005. On Friday, the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court upheld that decision, Xinhua news agency said.
The court cited an international treaty that China signed in 1983.
"The treaty states that outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by other means... The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries," Xinhua said.
The company offered to sell individuals ownership of an acre of lunar land for 298 yuan each.
"Within three days of opening for business, it was reported that 34 clients had bought 49 acres of land, earning the company more than 14,000 yuan.
"There was no indication if the company provided discounts to clients who bought multiple plots."
15 comments:
It is a bit like people wanting a star named after them. For a fee this is possible. Maybe they just want to see the land title stating that they own a bit of moon land. I dunno.
But I would have thought that in order to sell something, one would need to show proof of ownership first. lol
Wow these stories are so frequent. Why are people being always suckered into stuff like this? This is quite funny to be honest.
damian, I was laughing out loud as I was reading it. People are the same everywhere...too many fall for all kinds of scams.
I accidentally had the comments clicked off this post for a short time and Bacon Eating Atheist Jew posted this in the post underneath this one:
BEAJ wrote:"Of course man has a sucker gene to overcome their whole life. It is the one that readily accepts Santa and flying reindeer, the tooth fairy, and uh the invisible sky fairy."
BEAJ - I guess you are right...we have all been suckers at some time or another.
Well, I suppose "I've got a plot of land on the moon to sell ya" will be the 21st century's version of trying to sell swampland in Florida in the early 20th century.
That being said, within the next 50 years we should start seeing the increased commercialization of space. It is not improbable there will be hotels and convention centers circling the Earth. Heck, we can even have prisons in space. It would certainly be a lot more difficult for hardened convicts to escape.
Star, OT, do you know what happened to the guys over at Evangelical Atheist? They haven't posted in 3 months.
Years ago, I had the opportunity to buy a vertical foot of Mt. Washington (it was a fund-raiser). The deed clearly stated that you had no surface rights for development, etc. After careful consideration, I blew my money on pinball instead.
The non-ownership decision leaves some big questions to be answered at such time as colonization might be possible. I'm guessing living on the moon will give one about the same property rights as living on an oil rig. "Human Resources" indeed. Might never happen anyway.
Star, OT, do you know what happened to the guys over at Evangelical Atheist? They haven't posted in 3 months.
tommy, I do know that I AM started a new business in Colorado (Denver was it?) and he had another person writing posts but that one disappeared, as well. I am just guessing that he got busy with his new life, and blogging sort of faded away for him. Sad...I really enjoyed that site.
Maybe he will revive it some day.
Hey, do any of you guys remember when scammers were selling fake moodust and moon rocks after the Apollo surface excursions back in the late 60s, early 70s?
Of course, all the moon rocks were fake because the moon landings themselves were faked! :-)
tommy, my grandfather (a stubborn skeptical German) refused to believe that the lunar landings were real. He said it was all "Hollywood" and those who believed it were suckers.
I remember seeing a movie that came out in the late 70's called "Capricorn One" about a faked landing on Mars.
If the moon landings were fake, then it was the most expensive hoax in the history of the world. Even to the point of contriving a failed mission (Apollo 13) just to make the real landings seem plausible.
Whenever a conspiracy theory sounds too contrived, I assume the theory is wrong. Like the 9/11 was an inside job theory. If the goal was simply to pull of a mass casualty incident to galvanize an invasion of the Middle East, then just having two planes slam into the Twin Towers would be sufficient. It would not be necessary to bring the towers down by controlled demolition or fire a missile into the Pentagon and claim it was a jet liner. I've argued with a poster at the liberalavenger.com blog about this. Her insistence that 9/11 was an inside job is as fervent as a Biblical Literalist who argues that Noah's Ark really happened.
tommy - And I suppose the deaths of Command Pilot Virgil I. Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee of Apollo I was faked, as well.
If the goal was simply to pull of a mass casualty incident to galvanize an invasion of the Middle East, then just having two planes slam into the Twin Towers would be sufficient. It would not be necessary to bring the towers down by controlled demolition or fire a missile into the Pentagon and claim it was a jet liner.
I agree, tommy. The conspiracy theories about that all being an inside job is absurd. Some people take their disagreements with what our government does to the far-out extremes and make outlandish claims for which there is no evidence or logic.
Hey, I bought a piece of the moon as a gift for my sister, many moons ago. ;)
It was a joke gift. I don't recall how much it cost (20$?), but it was hilarious.
My sister works in property management, which made it pretty darn funny.
KA, It's like the pet rock craze. Did you own a pet rock? I admit that I did, but it was a gift from someone else. :-/
How about a pet turd? Little creatures made out of cow shit...I have seen that those are still sold at souvenier shops wherever I travel. Also, out on the eastern shoreboard, pet seashells. It's amazing what people will waste their money on!
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