Space.com: "Lunar Land Grab: Celestial Real Estate Sales Soar"

February 2nd, 2004, United States. I am interviewed by Robert Roy Britt of Space.com. His article, "Lunar Land Grab Celestial Real Estate Sales Soar" states, inter alia:
"In a crafty stunt designed to "expose the phony extraterrestrial real estate industry," British legal scholar Virgiliu Pop declared in 2001 that he owns the Sun and can charge the "owners" of other solar system bodies for the solar energy they receive. Pop has written several papers on space property rights and is a member of the IISL. "The Lunar Embassy does not own the Moon, hence it cannot sell it," Pop said in an e-mail interview. "If you still believe you can actually own the Moon by buying it from the Lunar Embassy, then you will have to pay me utilities fees for the Sun that I own as much (or as little) as Mr. Hope owns the Moon." One precedent Pop draws on involves the Masai tribe in Africa, which "has a similar legal claim over all the cows in the world, yet in reality, people all over the world continue to buy and sell cattle without involving the Masai. What I dispute here is the 'it is mine because I say so' approach." A cornerstone of Lunar Embassy's claims -- the absence of governmental protest -- is irrelevant, Pop argues, because no protest or response was to be expected "with such trivial claim" in light of accepted international law. Pop further contends that Dennis Hope's quest, which began in 1980, came too late. "A lunar claim was lodged in Chile back in 1953," Pop says, "and a Declaration of Lunar Ownership was issued by the city of Geneva, Ohio, back in 1966."
So why don't governments put a stop to all this? "Perhaps -- and this is my opinion, not the government’s -- this is because the government is concerned right now with more important issues," Pop said. "Yet, I hope one day the government will pay attention to the Lunar Embassy’s antics."

Robert Roy Britt's article appears also on MSNBC under the title "Could lunar real estate spark a future war?"