Downing A Drone To Protect Privacy Is Now Officially Labeled “Criminal Mischief”

Downing A Drone To Protect Privacy Is Now Officially Labeled “Criminal Mischief” http://bit.ly/1RTSbIt

As hobby drones continue to proliferate across the United States and commercial applications rise, the rules about drone use remain murky, as do the penalties for downing them if you feel your privacy is being threatened.

So far we have seen a push by the FAA to impose mandatory drone registration that requires owners of any drone weighing more than 250 grams to ID their aircraft and provide personal contact information so that quick action can be taken in the case of violations. However, this is being done mainly to protect government institutions, federal airspace and of course to address the ubiquitous threat of terrorism.

Meanwhile, a range of penalties has been applied to the few individuals who have managed to bring down drones in both public and private space; from jail time in the case of a man who took down a drone with his T-shirt at a California beach, to a 65-year-old Pennsylvania woman who hit her neighbor’s drone with a rock, destroying it – she was forced to pay $600 in damages, but was cleared of “criminal mischief.” A Kentucky man who took more serious action and used a shotgun to blast his neighbor’s drone out of the sky, was arrested, but also was eventually cleared of criminal mischief and first-degree endangerment.

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