Dead Aim Problem and Exploits

    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?