Excellent Youtube video "Who Owns The Moon?" by "vsauce"
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbgz4yY-xX0 )
features Michael, who says 1979 "Moon Treaty" was only signed by 11 countries (Mexico, India, Australia, France...), and that treaty suggests that no one can own any part of outer space ever.
Michael says the 1967 "Outer Space Treaty" was signed and/or ratified by 129 countries. The treaty says outer space is not subject to national appropriation, but doesn't address individual or corporate ownership. The treaty is based upon Antarctic treaty, saying the whole continent should never become a source of national contention.
It considers outer space a "Common Heritage of Mankind".
Catherine Doldirina of the Institute of Air & Space Law at McGill University in Canada has published an article that says the "common heritage" approach has slowed space development.
Michael points out that stuff that humans put into space remains the property of whoever sent it up.
International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, grants orbits.
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Further reading and sources of information from the video...
UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/COPUOS/copuos.html
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Example of Gregory W. Nemitz trying to claim ownership of asteroid "433 Eros"
http://www.erosproject.com/legal.html?source=ErosProject
http://www.permanent.com/archimedes-institute.html
433 Eros: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros
Eros probe landing: http://near.jhuapl.edu/
Buy moon 'estates': http://www.moonestates.com
Moon Treaty: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/moon.html
Outer Space Treaty: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/outerspt.html
animated map of the colonization of the Americas: http://bit.ly/4I7fSF
Guns, Germs and Steel: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guns-Germs-Steel-history-everybody/dp/0099302780
Property ownership especially in space:
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic08/gilman1/
http://law.uoregon.edu/org/oril/docs/12-1/brittingham.pdf
http://cei.org/issue-analysis/homesteading-final-frontier
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2058/1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_real_estate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finders,_keepers
http://sciencefocus.com/feature/health/who-owns-space
Common Heritage of Mankind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_heritage_of_mankind
Catherine Doldirina article: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2010/11/who-owns-outer-space.cfm
Antarctic treaty: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk//about_antarctica/geopolitical/treaty/
stuff we left on the moon/in space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_man-made_objects_on_the_Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_archaeology
http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu/lunarlegacies/index.html
http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu/lunarlegacies/index.html
Earth-orbit allocation: http://www.itu.int
declaration of bogota: http://root.ps/download/ASM/dec_bogota.pdf