What's Mine is Mine

In "The Man Who Sold the Moon", author Robert Heinlein talks about property law. In the book, he talks about how a plot of land you own extends down to a dot near the center of the earth and extends up forever. He used this idea as a plot device to allow his protagonist to claim ownership of the moon by buying up great tracts of land around the equator.

But I was much struck by the idea. Just think of all the things that are briefly yours as the swath of sky you own sweeps the heavens out to infinity. Just think of the complex path that swath takes when you consider the rotation of the earth on its axis, its orbital path around the sun, the movement of our solar system around the center of our galaxy, and our stately dance with the other systems in our galactic supercluster! And all the things that pass through your airspace (many at considerably faster than the speed of light, I might add) are your property for that briefest of instants.

Your sovereignty over the extent of your property out to infinity was recognized by most Western legal systems from medieval times until the era of commercial air travel began, when it was capped off at 500 feet to allow for the free passage of air travel. Humph! Another romantic dream shattered. The law giveth and the law taketh away.

So, keep your drones out of my 500 feet of airspace, or else ;)

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