Here’s some news plenty of you will find to be a bummer: Just because a drone happens to be flying over your property, that doesn’t mean you can shoot it down. Sorry.A Kentucky man found out the hard way there are consequences for terminating a drone with extreme prejudice, no matter how annoying it may be. The man, who claimed the drone was spying on his sunbathing daughter and used a shotgun to terminate its flight, was charged with violating a variety of state laws, including criminal mischief.Part of the problem in determining what is and isn’t fair protection against drone encroachment is a web of laws and regulations that are inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. Worst of all for those whose personal space has been violated by drones, these laws rarely spell out what, if anything, you can do about it.The following is our attempt to sort out what your rights are when you’re subject to an unwelcome drone visit. The answer is probably not. For one thing, the Federal Aviation Administration considers a drone to be a civil aircraft, and there’s a law that makes it a federal crime to destroy an aircraft.

The penalty is pretty steep, too — up to 20 years in the slammer.Like other aircraft, it’s perfectly within the law for a drone to fly over your property, so long as it is high enough in the air. (We will explain more about that later.)Zachary Ludens, a lawyer who specializes in aviation and drone law for the firm Carlton Fields Jorden Burt in Miami, said that while some states have trespassing laws that may include low-flying drones, simply shooting them down isn’t an option, at least not immediately. storm drone ff instruction manualSome states, such as Nevada, prohibit drones from flying less than 250 feet above ground level; ar drone hull painteven then, shooting the drone isn’t a course of action you can legally pursue.ar drone parrot mise a jour

However there are other actions you can take if a drone trespasses or violates other rights, including bringing suit against the operator or owner of the drone.This drone is not to be used for target practice. Some good sources for information on state-by-state drone laws can be found here and here.parrot ar drone sale south africaLudens suggests you try to find the operator of the drone flying over your property and ask them to stop. storm drone 6 pris“There’s no right to bring a trespassing action the first time,” Ludens explained. parrot ar drone pret“You have to notify the person.”Drones that are operated commercially (which was apparently the case in Kentucky, where the device was taking real-estate photos) have to be within line-of-sight of the operator.

If you feel the drone is trespassing, tell the operator that, and then request they keep the machine out of your airspace. But be aware that you have very limited rights concerning flights over your property. In most states, flying across your property at the appropriate altitude is perfectly legal.Both Ludens and a spokesperson for the FAA suggested notifying local law enforcement. The FAA spokesperson also said that the agency should be notified if the drone is being operated in a way that poses a risk to others. “The FAA maintains the ability to take enforcement action against anyone who operates an unmanned aircraft in a manner that endangers the safety of the national airspace system,” the spokesperson said.But suppose the drone is a danger to me?There aren’t many situations in which a drone could be a risk to life or safety, but some exist. For example a Connecticut teen built a drone armed with a handgun that he could fire remotely, but he didn’t threaten anybody. At publication time, the FAA and local police were still investigating the incident.

Perhaps a more serious threat were the drones that flew over wildfires in California on July 17, which prevented firefighting aircraft from dropping water and fire retardant on burning vehicles. In that case, Ludens said, fire or law enforcement personnel might have been justified in shooting them down.Do I have any recourse?If a drone is invading your privacy, then there are things you can do, although shooting it down isn’t on the list. (So put down that thirty-aught-six.) If you can spot the person operating the drone — and they refuse to stop what they’re doing — you can certainly call the police. You can also file legal actions against them, which may include a civil suit and/or a criminal complaint in areas where there are laws governing drone use.To do that, you will likely also need to follow the drone to find out who’s operating it. Just don’t get too aggressive about it. The same teen who built the gun-totin’ drone was assaulted by a beach-goer after he flew another unarmed drone over her at the beach.

So while you can’t use drone defense as a reason to buy that Purdy shotgun you’ve been lusting after (are you listening, Rand Paul?), you can do something. It may not be as satisfying as blasting the drone out of the sky, but the combination of police and lawyers may provide a more lasting and satisfying solution in the long run.Wayne Rash is senior columnist for eWEEK and is a longtime writer about aviation and space. He has been a pilot since 1970. Hands-on: Parrot AR Drone 2.0 packs new features and better hardware 01.10.2012 :: 3:13PM EST @russellholly In many ways, you could attribute the current rush of toys accessories powered by our smartphones to the Parrot AR Drone. The ability to fly a really cool looking quad-copter through the office with your smartphone was enough to excite any geek, and Parrot made that happen. The eventual growth to include both iOS and Android software to control the drone meant a massive market of people to enjoy the device. Now, as other smartphone-controlled gadgetry, like Sphero, is hitting the market, Parrot felt the need to refresh the AR Drone and give it some new bragging rights with the Drone 2.0.

New and Improved Hardware The original AR Drone is still incredibly fun to operate, but the first thing anyone does with one is crash it into something. Unfortunately, for some, that’s the last time your AR Drone 1.0 is intact. Parrot redesigned the hulls for the Drone 2.0 to handle much more stress. When using it indoors, the foam composite hull that goes around the blades has been improved, without being any heavier. In the demonstration, the AR Drone 2.0 rammed the wall of the convention center as fast as it could go, and bounced off without a scratch. When you take the Drone 2.0 outside, you remove that outer hull and let the new aerodynamically engineered EPP hull protect the quad-copter without risking it being blown away. EPP is a damage resistant plastic commonly used in car bumpers. The Parrot guys weren’t quite as willing to crash the AR Drone 2.0 with the foam core off of it, since your blades are exposed in that configuration. The camera on the AR Drone 2.0 took a big boost as well, offering a 720p view of the world from your controller.

The camera records at 30 fps, and allows you to upload the videos to YouTube as soon as you are finished recording them. Since your only rage limitation is how far your point to point WiFi connection with the Drone 2.0, the end result is a high definition aerial view that you have complete control over. The App Store and the Android Market are now serving up the AR FreeFlight 2.0 app to complement the new hardware from Parrot. This update includes a significant UI update and several new features to play with. With FreeFlight you can control the drone and record your flights or take pictures as you fly around, but you can also take the flight data and share it with other AR Drone users. Altitude, duration, location, and speed information are all recorded and easily shared through the app. To compliment this ability, the AR Drone Academy function lets you see how-to videos and location data for the best flight zones in your area. Firmware updates for the AR Drone 2.0 are also handled through the app.

When an update is available for your drone, the icon will light up, and you can install the update with a tap. The update is sent over the WiFi connection with the Drone, so everything can be done quickly and efficiently. As more developers take advantage of the open development platform for the AR Drone, the AR Games section of the app will fill with more augmented reality, tag, and other inventive ways to play with the Drone. When you fly the AR Drone, you can do it by looking at the drone and piloting with the FreeFlight controller, or you can use Absolute Flight, and use just your smartphone or tablet. The app will show you from the camera how the world looks from the drone’s perspective, but there are a few more things going on here. Absolute Control uses a 3D magnetometer to keep itself oriented. Using your controller as the orientation point, you no longer need to worry about how level the Drone is. However, if you’re an experienced Drone pilot, you can make the Drone 2.0 do aerial somersaults and exert much more control over how this version performs.