A new federal advisory highlights significant legal gaps around the use of anti-drone technology, making the use of jammers to prevent terrorism or nets to stop corporate espionage a risky proposition.
Although the new advisory — the first comprehensive compendium of federal laws related to anti-drone technology as they apply to non-federal users — does provide some clarityoon the issue, its overall effect is to confirm that the legal landscape for anti-drone tech is “a mess,” McCarter & English LLP government contracts practice co-chair Alex Major said.
“Essentially, all they’ve done here is shown in the guidance where the mines are,” he said. “It basically said this is a minefield, these are the mines, or this is the concertina wire that everybody has to walk through … The thing the guidance is almost intended to do is telegraph to states and commercial industry that this is not something you want to do.”