It is time for a thought experiment: You are out with your family walking around your home. Suddenly out of the sky you see a drone approaching. It is coming in your direction and appears to be looking at you. What do you do? If you had a gun would you protect yourself by shooting it down? If you do not have a gun, do you still consider this an invasion of your privacy/violation of your rights? If this is a violation of your rights, does it ipso facto make it illegal to fly drones? What rights does the drone operator have in the matter, if any?
Something interesting happened recently in Hillview, Kentucky. The hypothetical scenario above played itself out. One day not so long ago William Meredith was roaming around his property with his family when he saw a drone approaching. Mr. Meredith quickly pointed his shotgun at the drone and plucked it out of the sky. He was then sued by the drone operator whom claimed he was entitled to at least 1,800$; the cost to replace the drone he was using. The question that remained for the court to answer: Was Mr. Meredith within his rights to shoot down the drone within his property boundaries, or does the drone operator have the right to be flying their drone in public airspace? The court favored Mr. Meredith ruling that he had the right to protect himself, his family and is property. Therefore his actions to shoot the drone were justified. Ipso facto the drone was trespassing on his property.
This is a new story, but this debate has been going on in one form or another for a few years now. In 2013 a Colorado town once issued out drone hunting licenses. Making it just as legal to hunt/shoot drones as it is to hunt a deer. A court quickly put an end to this but it was a valiant effort, I suppose. In July of 2014 a mysterious drone appeared outside of the Seattle Space Needle. The next month a tourist flew a drone into a Yellowstone hot spring which was impossible to retrieve. All these incidents have sparked the debate about where property rights end and open airspace beings. This invisible boundary is getting more ambiguous by the day and there no clear definition or law in place to regulate it. Under the precedent set by this case would it be legal for Mr. Meredith to shoot at a helicopter over his property just as he did the drone? What about a commercial airline? Common logic would tell you of course not, but this remains an important discussion. Where this issue goes from here remains to be seen. As civilian and government drone usage continue to rise, I would not be surprised if a trial involving drones and property rights finds its way to Supreme Court in the years to come.
This article “Is it legal to shoot a drone Trespassing on your property? Yes” is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article using a creative commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ
Time for target practice….
The difference is the size, and if they where looking directly into your property. An Airplane usually doesnt do such, a Helicopter actually might do so because of it being smaller and easier to operate, so it can be shot down as much as a drone if it comes to close.