08-26-2022, 10:09 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2022, 10:31 AM by FaceInTheCrowd.)
True, but do those different entities have treaties that respect the property rights of each others' citizens? Imagine if instead of the Enterprise it had been Klingons or Gorns and Flint had not had the tech to miniaturize them. Would they have respected his claims of ownership? Would they even have had any record of anyone's ownership?
For ownership to have legitimacy, it has to be respected by an authority that is willing to defend it if needed. Because not everyone has the power to fend off a starship.
In the episode Cloud Minders, Kirk actually does cite the obligation of a Federation member world to provide aid and assistance to other member worlds, and when the leader of the planet's govt kicks him off the planet he kidnaps him. The guy threatens to bring charges against him and he in turn expresses his willingness to answer them, which doesn't sound to me as if he's too worried that his unorthodox method of obtaining compliance is going to have much fallout.
Flint's planet wouldn't fall under the umbrella of "Federation member world," so the commandeering of resources seemed like a better analogy. Especially since his claim of ownership wasn't documented and for all they knew he could have just been a squatter.
For ownership to have legitimacy, it has to be respected by an authority that is willing to defend it if needed. Because not everyone has the power to fend off a starship.
In the episode Cloud Minders, Kirk actually does cite the obligation of a Federation member world to provide aid and assistance to other member worlds, and when the leader of the planet's govt kicks him off the planet he kidnaps him. The guy threatens to bring charges against him and he in turn expresses his willingness to answer them, which doesn't sound to me as if he's too worried that his unorthodox method of obtaining compliance is going to have much fallout.
Flint's planet wouldn't fall under the umbrella of "Federation member world," so the commandeering of resources seemed like a better analogy. Especially since his claim of ownership wasn't documented and for all they knew he could have just been a squatter.