International Star Registry

I seem to recall a similar scam (probably still running) to sell off land on the moon. I know there are vunerable people out there....but it don't make it right to take advantage. As for those poor suckers who bought land on the moon.....I wouldn't hold my breath.... not much point really

They claim that they have the right to sell you the plot though. www.lunarlandowner.com/space_law_faq.htm

That's the thing - the company you highlighted Dave does absolve itself from responsibility. However, as they confirmed that what they have has, for lack of a better term, no legal standpoint, then why take money for the service? It is chumps who read it, acknowledge it, but are still daft enough to part with ther money that gets me.

Thats pretty much what I'm getting at Seanie. When a company clearly announces the status (or lack of) of its service then its really down to the buyer who chooses to part with the money. Its like a lot of things we have the choice to buy or not. If someone is willing to part with large sums of money for such a service then who are we to tell them they can't and also who are we to tell the company that they cannot offer the 'service'.

The problem I would have is with the companies who misrepresent the status of their 'service'. Thats where there would be a legal basis to challenge these scheisters.

Just thinking, why doesn't someone set up a free 'Star Naming' service, supply a downloadable cert and photo (from DSS). It has no legitimacy but it may prevent people who know the reality but still want the service, parting with their hard earned cash!

Again, just a thought, not necessarily an opinion.

As mentioned, this text is right on the front page so its clear to anyone visiting the site that such a name is not official.

As others have said, it's really not all that clear.

But whatever about the naming of a star issue, what really gets my goat is that they misrepresented the star they "sold" - that must be illegal (not to mention immoral)! The star charts they give out clearly give the impression that the star they "sold" is much brighter than it actually is!

As long as you accept this and are happy that the gesture is purely symbolic, then you might say why is that so bad??

I can see where you are coming from - there are people who are quite happy to part with money to "name" a star even knowing that the name will never be "used" by anyone but themselves. I think the number of such people is almost certainly fewer than the total number of their customers, though. But whatever about that, I cannot believe that any of their customers would be happy to know that the star marked for them on their star chart is not the star they paid for, and that the star they paid for is much fainter than any of the stars on that chart.

Maybe sometimes, we astronomers can get our heads stuck up or 'youknowwhats' a little?

Maybe, but I still think there is a genuine case to be answered here.

I seem to recall a similar scam (probably still running) to sell off land on the moon. I know there are vunerable people out there....but it don't make it right to take advantage. As for those poor suckers who bought land on the moon.....I wouldn't hold my breath.... not much point really

They claim that they have the right to sell you the plot though. www.lunarlandowner.com/space_law_faq.htm

Can they actualy legaly sell it?

They can try, but why bother fighting them, its not like your claim is going to be usurped anytime soon by someone else building a house there.

Also, you can only buy land off someone who owns it, they don't own it, they have no way of physically protecting what they say is physically theirs, so it ain't theirs, so the first person who gets there with a fence gets it.