Wayne White returned to The Space Show today to discuss in an extra long Space Show program exciting developments in space law and space property rights. Mr. White began his discussion with a presentation on the history and current state of space law. We opened the lines for questions and comments after the first break and Wayne continued his discussion and update, answering and commenting on questions, and helping us to understand many of the complexities of space law and property rights issues. Early on Mr. White was asked about a December 2004 Space Show program regarding telepossession. As the guest on that show suggested asking Wayne for confirmation of his theories, Wayne was asked and he gave us both a legal and a scholarly view on the telepossession issue. This discussion led to additional questions and comments about international and U.S. law, mining law, salvage law and space, The Law of the Sea, and more. You will certainly want to hear what Mr. White had to say about these legal issues and the important idea of telepossession, plus its potential uses as we push out to become space-faring. We also discussed the UN treaties, withdrawing from the Outer-Space Treaty, and the sale of lots on the Moon and elsewhere in space by those individuals and companies handling these sales and stating that they are legal. This discussion led to a brief summary of the differences between the European law which generally strives to have more consumer and citizen protection than US law which still maintains a frontier component within it, hence the differences in the approach to the lunar land sale programs in the US , Europe and elsewhere. We also discussed the process of registration for space bodies and projects per the UN treaties as compared to the registration website at the Archimedes URL, http://www.permanent.com/archimedes/PropertyRegistry.html. As a result of questions by listeners and comments regarding some of the registered information on the Archimedes site, Mr. White did explain its usefulness but stated that it was probably not a legal registry, especially in light of the decision recently handed down in the Nemitz case before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding charging rent to NASA for landing on an asteroid that Mr. Nemitz had previously claimed through the Archimedes registry and through other means as well. Mr. White discussed this case in some detail, his Amicus Brief, and his agreement with the finding of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Toward the end of this program, Mr. White referenced several quality websites for additional information on space law. Those websites are listed below. Also, listeners who want to get in touch with Mr. White can do so by sending your comments and messages through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Mr. White will return to the program later this year for more updates. Mr. White's space law references: UN Office of Outer Space Affairs http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/ NASAWatch http://www.nasawatch.com/ SpaceLawStation http://www.spacelawstation.com/index.html. Greg Nemitz - Eros property case http://www.erosproject.com/ International Institute of Space Law http://www.iafastro-iisl.com/
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