
Tom's right about this.  It's only a grantable right if the granter has
the will and the ability to stop anyone from taking it away from you.
Never mind the legal status.


Nick's right about this.  It's always easier to obtain forgiveness than
permission.  Not many people remember that Britain's King George III
expressly forbid his american subjects to cross the alleghany/appalachian
mountains.  Said subjects basically said, "Stop us if you can."  He
couldn't.


That's how the USA started.  Of course, that's also how the Bolivarian
Republic started (ca. 1800-1820) in central america.  It didn't have
quite the staying power of the USA.  I'm sure there are more examples of
going far away and then ignoring authority, but none jump to mind right
now.


Or do as some whaling nations do: define whatever activities you want to
carry out as "scientific research" which just coincidentally requires
the recovery of megatonnes of minerals (or whatever), then go at it.


Lute Keyser had just this sort of arrangement with Libya (I think) in
the late '70's for his commercial space launch project (one of the very
earliest).  It was killed by Soviet propaganda about NATO cruise
missiles in Africa, which made Libya renege on the arrangement.
