No More Lunar Land for Sale

dptalia writes "According to China Daily, Beijing authorities have shut down sales of lunar property. Apparently there's a "Lunar embassy" in China and they've sold 34 people deeds to land on the moon. Not too surprisingly, the government has declared this illegal. The Bejing office claims to be a satellite of the U.S. Lunar Embassy, run by Dennis Hope. Hope claims that while it is illegal for countries to stake a claim on the moon, it is legal for individuals and corporations to."

What?

[bl4nk]

He's clearly a lunatic.

Dang!

[Dragoonmac]

Well, at least we can be satisfied in knowing that the Moon is still open to conquest by anyone else. I'm still holding out for Sony to claim it and post advertisements on it for their products.

Wow!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only do they sell Lunar property, but I just got this fantastic deal on this bridge in Brooklyn!!! Highly Recommend this seller!

So let me get this straight...

[ATAMAH]

Those 6 acres on the moon i just bought from them - cannot be developed on?

That's China for you...

[saskboy]

"The Bejing office claims to be a satellite of the U.S. Lunar Embassy, run by Dennis Hope. "

They can even take Hope away from people.

But seriously, this scam is as old as the 1960s, if not older. Is it my duty as a Slashdot reader to point out that a 30 year old scam copied recently, is not news? No, it's not, so forget I said that, because it is news since people are still falling for it.

By the way, I've got a star to sell you. A nice one, in the Orion Belt.

Legal according to whom?

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Hope claims that while it is illegal for countries to stake a claim on the moon, it is legal for individuals and corporations to.

Legal according to whom? I suppose if you have a problem you could take it up with the Lunar Police. Perhaps they'll throw Hope into the Lunar Jail, and he can speak to a Lunar Lawyer about clarifications on Lunar Law.

Re:Dang!

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll install their rootkit on it. Then we won't be able to see the thing until it crashes right into us.

Ahhhhh!

[BTWR]

Hope claims that while it is illegal for countries to stake a claim on the moon, it is legal for individuals and corporations to.

Ahhh! You ended a sentence with a preposition!

Re:Dang!

[Trigun]

I always thought that Pepsi would carve their logo into the moon.

"Hello Sir...

[St0rmwarden]

I'm looking for a couple of acres to build my Mysterious Secret Moon Base - can I have a look at what's available?" And we thought people were stupid to fall for a Nigerian scam... This one really takes the cake. Or should that be the cheese?

Re:Dang!

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Yeah, but then the Tick will destroy the laser and the moon will only say "Son" instead of "Sony" and then people will get really confused.

That is, until Chairface [google.com] builds a Laser-eraser.

Re:So let me get this straight...

[clem]

Who knew it'd be adjacent to a wetland?

So If

[billsoxs]

So if you live in New York - you're a New Yorker. If you live in Illinois, you're an Illini.

Soooo, if you you live on the moon are you a Mooner or a Mooni?

Sorry - I know, a bad joke.

Re:Ahhhhh!

[Pyromage]

"This pedantry regarding ending a sentence with a preposition is the sort of business up with which I will not put" -- Winston Churchill

Re:So If

[Dragoonmac]

I think it makes you are a Lunatic.

Aw, shucks!

[ScaryMonkey]

I already have the parts assembled for my "Whalers on the Moon" attraction...

does this mean...

[GeekyMike]

I can sell land on Uranus?

Re:Gift gag, genuine or gullible?

[blibbler]

As the current US president said:
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again"

Re:What?

[Shadow Wrought]

Personally, I moon over puns with that much bite.

A star to sell me?

[game kid]

By the way, I've got a star to sell you. A nice one, in the Orion Belt.

You cannot be Sirius.

Nice, a fixed tax.

[}InFuZeD{]

Haha, if you go into the store they have a "Lunar Tax" of $1.51 on everything.
Those Lunarians are already imposing export taxes!

More [lunar] light on the subject

[sigzero]

Greetings from the Lunar Embassy and the Galactic Government: Thank you for the interest in our program. My name is Dennis M. Hope. I am the founder of the Lunar Embassy and the holder of the claim of ownership for the lands we sell. In 1980 I filed a claim of ownership with the United Nations, the USA and the former USSR. The claim was for the Moon of Earth and the other eight planets and their moons. The reason I filed with the United Nations, is that the UN is the only organization on this planet that was recognized as having the authority to create laws for deep space. The USA and USSR were noticed as a courtesy only. After all they were the world powers at the time. In 1967 the General Assembly of the United Nations created the "Outer Space Treaty." In article two of that treaty it states, "No nation by appropriation shall have sovereignty or control over any of the satellite bodies." Without sovereignty they cannot effectively create or enforce laws and without control they can do nothing else. In the "Outer Space Treaty," there is no mention of individuals. When researching the possibilities of claiming land on other planets I turned to the laws restricting private property claims on Earth. I found that in more than 123 countries on Earth there is a process in place where by citizens may claim ownership to un-owned lands. According to both civil and common law societies the precept of law is in place and fully recognized for private property claims. The problem exists that through all the countries that recognize these claims there are no standard rules for the claims. Since there were no clear formatted rules for the claim I used the acceptance of the precept of law. With the filing of these claims in 1980, to the governments I sent a letter stating my intent was to subdivide and sell these lands to anyone interested in purchasing them and if they (the governments) had a legal problem with that to let me know. Now twenty-five years later I am still waiting to hear from them. From 1980 to 1996 the sales of celestial properties was very slow. I sold approximately 3,500 separate properties. Since 1996 when we built our first facility to house the business we have done remarkably well. We currently have 3.2 million property owners in 180 countries on this planet. The list includes two former Presidents of the United States of America and the current President of the United States. We have politicians from many countries as property owners as well as USA astronauts, Russian Cosmonauts, Chinese astronauts, attorney's, doctors, educators, members of royal families in 6 countries, 453 celebrities like; George Lucas, Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Barbara Walters, Queen Latifa, Carrie Fisher of Star Wars, Meg Ryan, Clint Eastwood, and many more. Our demographics run the entire continuum. In 1998 the Lunar Embassy had penetrated the Internet as well as we could and sales were good but we knew there was another avenue to increase those sales. I started a reselling program. The first level of reselling was for those individuals that wanted to have the right to sell my property in their country but did not want to pursue this full time. We currently have 27 reselling agents. Then for those individuals or companies that wanted to treat this as something special and important I created the Ambassadorship. In this program the Ambassador would be an exclusive reseller for an entire country. They would through our licensing agreement be able to create their own reselling agents within their territory. Currently the Embassy has Ambassadorships representing 15 countries. Both the Authorized Reseller and the Ambassadors require fee based licensing agreements. In 2001, at a press conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, I gave notice to all governments on Earth that the Lunar Embassy in accordance with its more than 1 million property owners at the time were forming their own government. The Galactic Government was born. In March of 2004, we pres

well that's better

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

than the mining rights, or someone would be able to tunnel in uranus

Screw the Moon

[Scarletdown]

I can get you a better deal and sell you property rights to Uranus.

Forget Pluto though. That's Disney's territory.

Re:So let me get this straight...

[sweetspooky]

Looks like that summer home is out of the question now.

Re:Ahhhhh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope claims that while it is illegal for countries to stake a claim on the moon, it is legal for individuals and corporations to.

Ahhh! You ended a sentence with a preposition!

Hope claims that while it is illegal for countries to stake a claim on the moon, it is legal for individuals and corporations to, asshole!

Re:A star to sell me?

[JasontheMason]

But of course! And you could be the Sol owner!

I bought land on the moon before this guy

[billstewart]

Back when I was in grad school in Berkeley in 1978-1979, I bought an acre of land on the moon. Unlike this current guy, who claims to have legitimately laid claim to the whole moon and to be selling everybody a unique piece of land, the guy I bought it from showed up on campus wearing a silver space suit and doing a great schtick, making it clear that he's selling everybody the *same* acre of land, and that he's trading you a nice big fancy green piece of paper with engraving and shiny bits on it and pictures of the moon (the deed) in return for a little boring green piece of paper with a picture of a dead politician on it. He'd been arrested a number of times, because some towns don't like guys in space suits selling acres of land on the moon, but they couldn't legitimately charge him with fraud because he was quite upfront about how he's selling everybody the same acre of land, and he had lots of good pictures of the police trying to keep a straight face while busting him. And he finished with an anti-drug message, about how you shouldn't go taking large quantities of LSD or *you* might end up on the streetcorner in a silver spacesuit selling people land on the moon.

Re:What?

[aussie_a]

No I'd say the people he sold the "deeds" to are lunatics. This guy appears to be one rich bastard.

Re:What?

[MinutiaeMan]

Sorry, this weird bald guy in a sparkly silver suit with a bizarre midget clone and a giant "frikkin' 'laser'" got there first. But I hear he's willing to sell it for one hundred billion dollars...

Amazing.

[MiKM]

I think I bought the last plot! This will be worth a fortune!

Closer to home

[dbcad7]

There is pleny of unclaimed ocean right here on earth.

All you need is a boat, lots of rocks and dirt, and voila "instant country"
strap a shotgun onto the boat, and have yourself a navy too.

You can then declare war on the US.. get invaded, and have your country rebuilt for free !

dbcad7

Who will enforce it?

[dingleberrie]

Hi. I'm looking for someone to enforce my deed for lunar land. My country won't do it because it has no jurisdiction. I am trying to assemble my own army, but I have no money left since I spent most of it acquiring the entire crater out beyond the 10 mile mark of the perimeter. Please help, as my only other recourse is a contact I have in Nigeria. Thanx.

Re:What?

[NanoGator]

"He's clearly a lunatic."

Ugh. Lately these stupid puns have been a cheap way for a funny mod. I can't wait until this phase is over.

Re:Dang!

[Sandmann]

Reminds me of a joke from the cold war:

- Mr. President! The Russians have landed on Mars and they are busy are
painting it red!

- Don't worry. We'll just wait until they finish; then we'll write "Drink
Coca-Cola" in big white letters on it.

Re:What?

[Sebilrazen]

Ugh. Lately these stupid puns have been a cheap way for a funny mod. I can't wait until this phase is over.

So true. I'm waiting for the tide to turn as well, hopefully this mediocre humor is ebbing and we'll see this trend begin to wane.

Re:The "fumblerules" of grammar.

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF is that tripe? A Betty Crocker guide to boring literature? Pull some of the upholstery out of your ass already...

Re:That's China for you...

[NanoGator]

"By the way, I've got a star to sell you. A nice one, in the Orion Belt."

Feedack: Do NOT purchase from this guy! He sent me a fucking cat!

Re:Wow!!!

[Infinityis]

Brooklyn? That's nothing, I got a great deal on a bridge over in Alaska...

Re:A star to sell me?

[Infinityis]

Shame on you people, joking at a time like this. Don't you understand the gravity of the situation?

Re:Ignore this OT Compliment!!!

[Jesus_666]

What, that means that also English and German not the same syntax have? That can I hardly believe!

Amazing discovery: Syntax is language-specific. News at 11.