Property Rights Proposal]

>
> Much like terrestrial common law, who gets what and when, has to be
> spelled
> out before you will any real investment in space. If, for example, it
> is
> spelled out that the hypothetical golden asteroid will be divided
> 70/30 the
> greater portion going to the discoverer, then people can make plans
> and
> decide if they want to

Right, that would definitely be the intent of such a proposal - you gain
full rights (or mining rights, or whatever the relevant rights are) for
an initial title payment, which may be done under a competitive auction.
Royalties and taxes aren't a necessary part of the proposal, though
there might be some political necessity for it at some point. Not every
request for title would necessarily be granted. Examples of this sort of
process are the things the International Telecommunications Union does
to distribute airwave and geosynchronous orbit space. Or what Domain
Name authorities do with internet domain name space.

> I don't want to see corporate planets or space ships flying the 'Jolly
> Roger'
> either, but the current environment is not conducive to investment.

Yup, this is a proposal to make a significant change in that
environment.

>
> On the other hand. I don't see why an O'Neal type habitat has to be
> effected
> by these treaties. What resource of the people of Earth is it using?

The O'Neil habitats require lunar or asteroidal materials, so the mining
rights have to be sorted out first. They also occupy a set of orbital
parameters that should be reservable, even though that is hardly a
scarce commodity (but might become so in strategic locations like LEO,
GEO, or Lagrange point regions).

Arthur