A Secret Service agent is distracted by a drone that lands on the lawn of The White House. While he isn't paying attention an alien ship hovers overhead.
UPS has been exploring the possibility of have small remotely-controlled drones deliver packages to doorsteps. And wouldn’t that be weird? Is a drone with a camera different from a traffic copter as a tool for journalists? Other than being infinitely cheaper? But if the drone is in the air to cover traffic, can it also take pictures through the windows of your house? The laws says a newsman can take pictures of your house so long as he doesn’t trespass on your property. How does that apply to the air? Even if the drone is directly over a public street, it can be high enough to look directly into your 10th floor apartment window. As these little helicopter-drones becomes more numerous, interesting questions arise. Question for the NRA, does the right to bear arms include the right to anonymously own and remotely operate drones with guns or explosive devices attached? I have heard many gun rights advocates say that “arms” means weapons of any kind, and there should be no restrictions, no registrations, etc. We’re probably still a long way from “murder by drone” — at least in regard to illegal murder carried out by private persons. It may never be an actual problem, outside of the movies. Still …
A drone carrying six pounds of meth crashed in a Mexican parking lot last week. Apparently they had overloaded it.(http://time.com/3678147/drone-meth-mexico/)It is possible to buy or build drones cheaply: Brookstone has a drone section. (http://www.brookstone.com/drones-minidrones?catId=L3_DronesMiniDrones|L2_ElectronicToys|L1_Games)Since the Brookstone drone can fly for 36 minutes, it means you can drop a payload of death on someone in your neighborhood quite easily.And let’s not forget that we’re using military drones around the world and in various US police departments.It’s not a good trend, but I don’t know what we can do about it.
In Katz versus the US (1967), the decision was made that there was a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public phone booth. More recent decisions by SCOTUS have given away some those rights. If it was an intrusion to use a listening device outside of a phone booth, then why is it OK to have a dog sniffing the outside of your car? And don’t even get me started on the spying…..
My sister got her hubby his very own drone for Christmas. Sadly, he hasn’t gotten his full quota of fun from it, because the air is thin where they are (above a mile altitude), and any breeze knocks it back down.
I’d like for him to get it working, so he can take good pictures and video of the houses he builds.
Years ago, they were not easily maneuvered, they made way too much noise to go unnoticed, and they required a lot of learning to be able to keep them from crashing.
Today’s models are smaller, much harder to detect, and are much easier to control with limited instruction.
And now that we’ve bragged about how we can kill with these, there is no reason to think that people with missions far from military will use these to kill the neighbor’s dog for barking at night, or the neighbor who won’t shut the dog up.
As the technology evolves, we can do more with less and be less obtrusive at the same time. Not so very strange. But very frightening.
Probably in the coming years we will go through a real flap about small, personal drones, just like when jet skis were introduced. When jet skis first came out, kids used them on remote ponds at 7AM or 8PM, disturbing others who came for peace & quiet. Often, they disturbed wildlife, like loons and swimming moose(seriously!). But after a few years, both sides learned to respect the other’s rights. No jet skiing until 10AM, and no later than 5PM. Older folks stopped calling the police.The paparazzi’s will have a field day filming private celebrities weddings. One spouse can easily follow the cheating one. .Two years ago, I purchased a small RC helicopter for only $20! It had some small red and blue lights, and was virtually silent. Bringing it to my camp in northern Maine, I crept over to my neighbor’s place at dusk, knowing they would be out on the porch, which was 10-12 feet high off the ground. Crouching beside their camp, I started the little Apache ‘copter, gently sent it around front, and slowly brought it up to where they could see a dark thing with tiny lights looking at them. Linda’s shriek scared wildlife for a mile around. Then I heard George mutter “I think Joe has something to do with this!”.In a few years, what I did will be illegal.
“It’s odd, but years ago, when they were ‘R.C. Model Aircraft’, no one really seemed bothered by them. Now that they are ‘Drones’, suddenly everyone is freaking out.Strange, huh?Back when they were ‘R.C. Model Aircraft’, there weren’t a lot of video cameras that could be carried by said model aircraft and most couldn’t hover in one spot to remotely take pictures.It’s not so much the drones people are freaking out about, it’s what can be done with them.
That reminds me of some of the provisions that grew out of English common law. I don’t know if it still holds true, but the idea was you could not do anything, even on your own property, that interfered with your neighbor’s use of his property. For example, you could not build a fence on the property line if it deprived your neighbor’s garden of the sunlight it formerly had.
“Expectation of privacy” is, of course, a subjective measurement. For example, if you sunbathe in the nude on the rooftop terrace of your penthouse, with the expectation of privacy from the fact that there are no building nearby which are as tall, have you a proper claim against the pilot of a helicopter that flies overhead?
Doughfoot over 9 years ago
UPS has been exploring the possibility of have small remotely-controlled drones deliver packages to doorsteps. And wouldn’t that be weird? Is a drone with a camera different from a traffic copter as a tool for journalists? Other than being infinitely cheaper? But if the drone is in the air to cover traffic, can it also take pictures through the windows of your house? The laws says a newsman can take pictures of your house so long as he doesn’t trespass on your property. How does that apply to the air? Even if the drone is directly over a public street, it can be high enough to look directly into your 10th floor apartment window. As these little helicopter-drones becomes more numerous, interesting questions arise. Question for the NRA, does the right to bear arms include the right to anonymously own and remotely operate drones with guns or explosive devices attached? I have heard many gun rights advocates say that “arms” means weapons of any kind, and there should be no restrictions, no registrations, etc. We’re probably still a long way from “murder by drone” — at least in regard to illegal murder carried out by private persons. It may never be an actual problem, outside of the movies. Still …
grapefroot about 9 years ago
I like that: “Idea Log”. Great play on words, although I’m not sure it’s intentional
Motivemagus about 9 years ago
A drone carrying six pounds of meth crashed in a Mexican parking lot last week. Apparently they had overloaded it.(http://time.com/3678147/drone-meth-mexico/)It is possible to buy or build drones cheaply: Brookstone has a drone section. (http://www.brookstone.com/drones-minidrones?catId=L3_DronesMiniDrones|L2_ElectronicToys|L1_Games)Since the Brookstone drone can fly for 36 minutes, it means you can drop a payload of death on someone in your neighborhood quite easily.And let’s not forget that we’re using military drones around the world and in various US police departments.It’s not a good trend, but I don’t know what we can do about it.
Nantucket Premium Member about 9 years ago
In Katz versus the US (1967), the decision was made that there was a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public phone booth. More recent decisions by SCOTUS have given away some those rights. If it was an intrusion to use a listening device outside of a phone booth, then why is it OK to have a dog sniffing the outside of your car? And don’t even get me started on the spying…..
Kip W about 9 years ago
My sister got her hubby his very own drone for Christmas. Sadly, he hasn’t gotten his full quota of fun from it, because the air is thin where they are (above a mile altitude), and any breeze knocks it back down.
I’d like for him to get it working, so he can take good pictures and video of the houses he builds.
I Play One On TV about 9 years ago
Years ago, they were not easily maneuvered, they made way too much noise to go unnoticed, and they required a lot of learning to be able to keep them from crashing.
Today’s models are smaller, much harder to detect, and are much easier to control with limited instruction.
And now that we’ve bragged about how we can kill with these, there is no reason to think that people with missions far from military will use these to kill the neighbor’s dog for barking at night, or the neighbor who won’t shut the dog up.
As the technology evolves, we can do more with less and be less obtrusive at the same time. Not so very strange. But very frightening.
Godfreydaniel about 9 years ago
Maybe we should wonder what Ben Franklin was really doing with his kite……
moosemin about 9 years ago
Mr. Toles: Are you depicting “The Day the Earth Stood Still” or “Independence Day”?
moosemin about 9 years ago
Probably in the coming years we will go through a real flap about small, personal drones, just like when jet skis were introduced. When jet skis first came out, kids used them on remote ponds at 7AM or 8PM, disturbing others who came for peace & quiet. Often, they disturbed wildlife, like loons and swimming moose(seriously!). But after a few years, both sides learned to respect the other’s rights. No jet skiing until 10AM, and no later than 5PM. Older folks stopped calling the police.The paparazzi’s will have a field day filming private celebrities weddings. One spouse can easily follow the cheating one. .Two years ago, I purchased a small RC helicopter for only $20! It had some small red and blue lights, and was virtually silent. Bringing it to my camp in northern Maine, I crept over to my neighbor’s place at dusk, knowing they would be out on the porch, which was 10-12 feet high off the ground. Crouching beside their camp, I started the little Apache ‘copter, gently sent it around front, and slowly brought it up to where they could see a dark thing with tiny lights looking at them. Linda’s shriek scared wildlife for a mile around. Then I heard George mutter “I think Joe has something to do with this!”.In a few years, what I did will be illegal.
UpaCoCoCreek Premium Member about 9 years ago
Leave my baby alone!
Jason Allen about 9 years ago
Doughfoot about 9 years ago
That reminds me of some of the provisions that grew out of English common law. I don’t know if it still holds true, but the idea was you could not do anything, even on your own property, that interfered with your neighbor’s use of his property. For example, you could not build a fence on the property line if it deprived your neighbor’s garden of the sunlight it formerly had.
“Expectation of privacy” is, of course, a subjective measurement. For example, if you sunbathe in the nude on the rooftop terrace of your penthouse, with the expectation of privacy from the fact that there are no building nearby which are as tall, have you a proper claim against the pilot of a helicopter that flies overhead?