'Today the Sun, Tomorrow the Stars?' Weird-But-True Legal Claim

"Spanish Woman Claims She Now Owns Sun"
AFP, via myFOXOrlando (November 26, 2010)

"After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.

"Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our solar system.

"There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added.

" 'There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first.'..."

This is going to be interesting.

The Lemming thinks that the 'no country may claim' agreement is the sort of thing that happened in the days when the United States and Soviet Union were the only countries with a serious chance of reaching the moon or any other planet. And when 'serious' thinkers who were still getting used to the 20th century didn't imagine that anybody would really want real estate that wasn't on Earth.

That was before Bigelow Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and Spaceport America.

The folks who've staked their claims to nearby real estate may show a profit - after balancing lawyers' fees with whatever they get from Lunar Development Corporation, Martain Plains Industries, or whatever outfits doing the actual work are called by then.

And yes: The Lemming thinks there's a good chance that there will be a lively commercial interest in off-Earth properties within the lifetime of the folks mentioned in that article.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Hyperbole, Business, and a Spaceship Factory"
  (November 19, 2010)
• "Bigelow Aerospace, Private Space Station, International Enterprise"
  (October 20, 2010)
• "Russia Will Have First* Commercial Space Station"
  (September 29, 2010)
• "Taxi to the Stars, No: To Earth Orbit, Soon"
  (June 5, 2010)
• "America's Seventh Spaceport"
  (January 19, 2010)
• "Asteroid Threat: Good News, We Have the Technology; Bad News -"
  (April 28, 2009)

More:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"