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To: Shalom Israel

It seems that you are the one who is confused--thinking that you own the air and the radio waves that are around your property. Next thing, you'll be telling us that you have the right to shoot down an airplane that flies through "your" airspace.


208 posted on 12/18/2005 10:08:21 AM PST by flada (Posting in a manner reminiscent of Jen-gis Kahn.)
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To: flada
It seems that you are the one who is confused--thinking that you own the air and the radio waves that are around your property. Next thing, you'll be telling us that you have the right to shoot down an airplane that flies through "your" airspace.

I never stated that I own any part of the RF spectrum, nor of the airspace over my home. In fact I already addressed that question in an earlier post.

The broadcaster who gets there first rightfully owns his segment of the spectrum, by virtue of having homesteaded it. Other broadcasters are free to homestead other segments of the spectrum, or the same frequencies in a different coverage area. Disputes are solved in court in the same manner that two homesteaders resolve a dispute over pastureland.

Similarly, the airspace over my home, or the minerals under my home, are not mine because I did not homestead them. The first private air-travel provider to use an air traffic lane owns it, by virtue of having homesteaded it. Other providers can use other lanes, or can arrange contractually to share the use of the first provider's lanes.

If those lanes pass over my house, there are certain rights that I have; for example, an airline has no right to buzz my house. If I was there first, and their air lanes result in sonic booms, then they need to fly higher and/or slower, or arrange for an easement from me--not because I have any rights in the airspace, but because they're polluting my space down on the ground.

Naturally, the US government doesn't take such a simple, moral perspective. The government's only method of addressing these allocation problems is to claim sovereinty over the entire spectrum, or the entire airspace, and then dole it out according to their political agenda.

308 posted on 12/18/2005 2:03:58 PM PST by Shalom Israel (Well, I got better...)
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