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A comment on Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there. Parent comment

Re:Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there by whatshisface on Thursday July 18, 2019 @11:24AM (#20470779)
Laws aren't so easy to sunset even if they have sunset clauses. Whoever benefits from the legislative mistakes will grow to be more powerful than whoever is being pinched by them, and then they'll lobby like nothing else to keep the laws the same. One example would be H&R block, which was created by a complex tax code and works very hard to keep it that way.

As for the tragedy of the commons, if your mining operation negatively impacts mine by messing up a shared resource, I can sue you right away. The lack of a legal framework doesn't mean that everything is legal, at least under US tradition; it means that the civil courts decide.

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Re:Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there by ajmurmann on Thursday July 18, 2019 @02:20PM (#20472555)
> As for the tragedy of the commons, if your mining operation negatively impacts mine by messing up a shared resource, I can sue you right away. The lack of a legal framework doesn't mean that everything is legal, at least under US tradition; it means that the civil courts decide.

This is only true though for direct damages that ideally are measurable in a monetary value. Are there cases where it helped keeping goods in the commons. I for one would love to sue everyone who fishes in the ocean because I'd rather watch the fish and sleep well at night knowing the ocean isn't being ruined. Simpler and less controversial example would be pollution of the air we are all breathing.

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Re:Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there by ls612 on Thursday July 18, 2019 @04:14PM (#20473518)
The good news is that most of these commons issues are related to ecosystems on earth, which are blissfully absent in space.
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Re:Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there by ajmurmann on Thursday July 18, 2019 @04:24PM (#20473599)
I'm curious to see if or how long that will hold true. We already have been seeing outcry over light pollution caused by SpaceX massive satellite formation.
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Re:Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there by antepodius on Thursday July 18, 2019 @06:41PM (#20474661)
I'd say low earth orbit is qualitatively different from, say, an asteroid somewhere.
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Re:Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there by throwaway2048 on Thursday July 18, 2019 @02:44PM (#20472806)
Who do i sue over global warming?
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