Drones could be close that you want them
/ Alex Resila
SYRACUSE -- A drone might be coming to your front yard. Due to a federal law which was passed last year, drones can now be flown in the frist 400 feet of federal airspace. This distance above the ground is know as hobbyist airspace. This means that a drone could be hovering right over your roof and you can't do anything about it.
Today at the Newhouse School of Communications a seminar was held to inform the public of some of the benefits this new technology will have on journalism. As early as 2015, you could be seeing these drones twice the size they are right now. That is when they can be used at the commercial level. Currently they are being used in the consumer market.
It isn't just the newsrooms that will be benefiting from this, police departments will as well. That is just what scared one resident from Syracuse.
"We could ask our mayor and the city council to indicate right off the bat, that it is illegal to surveil people without a warrant," said John Murray.
Michael Livolsi is an Associate Attorney with Mackenzie Hughes. I went to him to find out where this line is drawn. "The airspace above a piece of property is not for the exclusive use of the property owner. Simply flying above the airspace of a piece of property is not in and of itself a trespass," said Livolsi. "If there is a low flying aircraft which somehow damages or interferes with the use of property, then in that case it could be a trespass."
This does raise questions of privacy. The more the government allows these eyes in the sky, the more we might wonder who is watching who.
