At 5:58 PM -0700 7/11/01, David Honig wrote:
At 08:58 AM 7/11/01 -0700, mmotyka@lsil.com wrote:
I suppose, as with any racket, whoever has the ability to knock the satellites down or render them inoperable could levy a "tax" on them.
Heh, right on. But some dingleberry in LA is not about to violate an international space treaty without *really* needing the publicity. The treaty that says you don't fight in space. (Yes, I know its toast when next the US needs to perform a little orbital cleansing.)
Besides, when multiple gangs see an untaxed (but coercable) resource, they'll fight amongst themselves first for the territory.
I'll bet good money that Washington is leaning on L.A. to drop this ridiculous claim. For several decades the U.S. (and presumably Russia/FSU) has convinced the nations of the world that fees need not be paid to India, Botswana, and Shakedownistan just because U.S. satellites pass overhead. If L.A. is able to shake down Hughes for some tax to be distributed to the welfare bums and crack hoes, then Botswana and Shakedownistan will be next in line. --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns