Let's say you communicate with a person somewhere using some sort of wireless communication (radio, sound, light or anything else). Then someone builds a house on the way and blocks this communication. Can you sue them?
Based on easements or even having homesteaded the radio waves, I can see courts operating based on common law deeming such a blockage as tortious.
Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...
Eugene:Can you sue them?
You can do anything you want. The real question is, how will society react?
If society supports enforcement of a rule where you can sue the guy, then there may be organizations and institutions to facilitate that. In a society that doesn't support the enforcement of a rule where you can sue the guy, you may have some convincing to do.
Not a very useful response there.
If you've homesteaded it, you can sue. So they'd be in the wrong.
But some communication can be blocked by anything. Does it mean that if I started such communication no one can build houses in a 100km radius?
Can you give an example? Using flashlights for morse code?
Mtn Dew: Not a very useful response there. If you've homesteaded it, you can sue.
If you've homesteaded it, you can sue.
Not a very useful question by OP, "can you sue?"
You can do anything you want, as long as you have the means. You can sue, as long as there are institutions to facilitate suing. The question is either A) silly if there are such institutions, or B) malformed if there aren't. If there are institutions which facilitate suing in that case, then you obviously can sue. If there aren't, then the pertinent question is, "how will society react to you using violence against this person and calling it "suing" and "enforcement"?
I'm pointing out that by, "can you sue" OP likely meant, "would you value and/or fail to oppose institutions and norms which would permit suing and enforcement in that case?" To which I would answer: Yes; if I was the lawyer or the head of a law firm, or a judge or a member of the insurance agencies which run society at that point, or any other position of power in the enforcement establishment, I would support suing in that case. Further, my support of suing would correlate positively with my gains of money and power through such support.
Yes, you have homesteaded the use of wireless on the property so interfering with their transmission would be a property rights violation subject to:
1. The transmitters must make a clear case infront of an arbitrator or less preferred a monopoly court that the building truely the cause of the blockage. I can not see how but it is possible but assuming it could be.
2. Alternatives must not exist or must be more expensive than the current situation. If the structure would block the transmission then the owners of the structure could offer to purchase a land line to carry the transmission. Or they could set up a relay for the transmission?
3. The owners of the structure could pay the people to stop transmitting or pay the people to move.
If 1 is true, and 2 and 3 are impossible then the transmitters would/should have property rights to make their transmission and would have a case against the oweners of the structure otherwise they would lose homesteading rights to make their transmission.
What about the morse communication using flashlight case? Or what about weak radio transimission to the entire county which is easily blocked by basically any structure?
I like the answer given by the user "hashem" except for one thing.
Society is an ill-defined entity that cannot act nor react, except in the imagination of people.
There are reactions to any given law suit, but it's not society who's reacting. The reactions come from a variety of well defined individuals and organizations within that society.
And they will respond according to their inclinations and dispositions.
To estimate how some law suit is going to effect change on anything, you must understand what are those inclinations and dispositions.
I would say yes. the previous owners homesteaded that use of the land. It would be like installing solar panels and my neighbor plants a fast growing tree that eventually blocks the panel.