Who can tax a satellite?

[Petro]

At 11:45 PM -0700 7/12/01, Matt Beland wrote:

>It's a moot point anyway, but for the record, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 
>states that no nation may claim jurisdiction or territory beyond the limits 
>of Earth's atmosphere, which is spelled out in a separate treaty as being 
>100km altitude above mean sea level.
>
>So even if airlines do pay fees for overflying nations - which seems 
>rediculous but no more so than thousands of other laws - it wouldn't apply to 
>satellites.

	Not all nations are signatories to that treaty, and not all nations that  did sign that treaty are the same country today. 

	As soon as some socialist piece of shit (well, more like fascist, but why quibble over distinctions without a difference) aquires the ability to knock commercial sats out of orbit and convinces a significant portion of the population in his/her country that they can extort money from US companies, they're going to try.