DEAD AIM PROBLEM
Dead Aim Hunting owns a 100-acre plot in central Texas, which it keeps wellstocked
with game. It also operates a website at https://www.dead-aim-hunting.com.
Users must pay monthly membership dues of $14.95 and a deposit of $1,000 to
participate in what Dead Aim calls “drone hunting.” Dead Aim has attached cameras
and Remington .30-06 rifles to remote-control drones. Users who have reserved
a time block can take control of one of the drones. By clicking on appropriate
buttons in their web browser, they send a signal to Dead Aim’s computer,
which in turn sends signals to the drone to position itself and aim the attached
rifle. By clicking on a “fire” button, they can move an actuator that pulls the trigger
on the rifle. A hunter a thousand or more miles away can thus shoot at a deer, antelope,
or other animal. If they succeed in killing one, Dead Aim bills them for its
cost, then ships them the carcass for skinning, butchering, and/or mounting, as
appropriate. In the words of Dead Aim’s owner, “Hunter” Dan Lockwood, “Most
hunters use blinds to conceal themselves. What’s the difference between that and
clicking a mouse? Nothing. That is the same exact motion, and it takes the same
amount of time.”
Lurleen Lumpkin, a resident of Illinois, used Dead Aim to kill a six-point buck
on November 20. Cletus Spuckler, a resident of West Virginia, used Dead Aim to
shoot at a rabbit on December 4, but missed. Texas has enacted a statute stating:
A person may not attach a firearm to an aerial vehicle or operate an
aerial vehicle to which a firearm has been attached if the aerial vehicle
is located in Texas.
Illinois has enacted a statute stating:
A person shall not operate, provide, sell, use, or offer to operate, provide,
sell, or use any computer software or service that allows a person
not physically present at the hunt site to remotely control a weapon
that could be used to take wildlife by remote operation, including, but
not limited to, weapons or devices set up to fire through the use of the
Internet or through a remote control device.
1. Can either Texas or Illinois prosecute Dead Aim or any of its users? Are these laws
a good idea?
2. Exploits: There is a thriving grey market in “exploits”: short programs that
take advantage of security vulnerabilities in commonly-used software to let
an attacker take control of a computer. Secrecy is key, because once an exploit
is known, the company whose software it targets can fix the vulnerability.
Some of the biggest exploit buyers are governments – including the
United States government – looking to spy on each other, or on their own
citizens. Some critics think that the sale of exploits should be criminalized,
but others argue that they are protected by the First Amendment. Who is
right? What should be done about exploits? To make matters even more
complicated, consider the Second Amendment, which protects “the right of
the people to keep and bear Arms.” Does it also protect the right to keep and
bear exploits?