3.19.2007
China Moon Sale Ban Upheld
While Mike Griffin testified before Congress last week that China could indeed be the next nation to land on the Moon, an appellate court in Beijing was confirming that would-be peddlers of lunar real estate would have no legal market among the billion Earthlings in China.As I reported earlier (see this post, via China News), the Lunar Embassy of China lost its bid at the District Court level to sell lunar deeds. This week, no surprise, the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court upheld the ruling.
Here's the LA Times, with the headline, Chinese courts says selling moon plots is legal lunacy. (Well, that's not exactly what the court said, but you get the idea.)
Yes, real estate development and commerce will happen on the Moon. But so far, unless the law changes, vendors may want to peddle green chesse sandwiches rather than attempt to market paper moons on Earth. (Meanwhile, we'll know when citizens begin to catch on to these scams when they start offering to pay for lunar deeds with things like fake moon dirt.)
(By the way, I haven't heard anything further on the attempt by plaintiff Li Jie -- Dennis Hope's affiliate on the ground in China -- to sell "World Cup air" to those unfortunate souls who were unable to make it to the international event last year in Germany. Apparently authorities nixed that business plan too. But one wonders, can buckets of "moon air" be next?)
I will follow up in the event an appeal by the Lunar Embassy of China is taken to the nation's Supreme People's Court (最高人民法院).
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IMAGE: Beautiful Harvest moon, not yet for sale, via this quaint blog.
