Newsfox: New trend - property on Mars; Expert questions sale of real estate in space

Rodica Pricop from Newsfox writes (http://www.newsfox.com/pte.mc?pte=030410045):

Glasgow (pte/Apr 10, 2003/15:35) - A legal expert is preparing a doctorate thesis at Glasgow University http://www.gla.ac.uk that he claims will prove once and for all that people selling properties on the moon and other planets are nothing but "swindlers".
Romanian Virgiliu Pop, a specialist in international law and lecturer at the Law Faculty in Lille, France, told Romanian paper Libertatea that he was drawing up the thesis "Property rights in space - Who owns the Moon?" as a protest against Dennis Hope, the man who became a millionaire by selling property on planets.
Pop disputes Hope's rights to property on over 52 planets and stars.
He said: "My demand comes as a reaction to this absurd business with extraterrestrial properties, which is just a big swindle. These people and companies are making huge profits because they claim that they own the Moon or other planets and stars, based purely on the fact that no one has claimed them before." He added: "It's as if I were to start selling off pieces of the People's House in Bucharest."
Pop said that he planned to expose what he called the "stupidity" of claiming rights to other planets by registering a claim to the Sun and charging a tax on the energy it produces. "I really intend to charge 'other owners' in our galaxy for using the light and other energy produced by my planet," he said.
He added, however, that in registering his claim he would take responsibility for all the damage produced by energy from the sun, such as skin cancer and sunburns.
He explained: "If someone sues me for this I am convinced that no court in the world would register the complaint, but implicitly my ownership of the Sun will be recognised, which is of course ridiculous."