[stoppingdown]

As a side note for stoppingdown you can see where I was when I took my shot of the sky in the image attached. It maybe that the land “belonged” to the farmer but it should be noted that this sort of obsessive landownership is more problematic than whatever it is that Adobe is supposedly doing.

 

 

Clearly I'm not interested in discussing a specific case, having expressed a general criterion.

 

There are many things to consider, in any case. A long time ago I, together with a few other people, entered a private property - not on the grassland, but staying on a white road, for a hundred meters or such. The area was just after the end of a minor airport runway. The Italian air patrol was going to take off and we wanted an uncommon perspective. It was not the official exhibition day, but the day before, and the patrol was just practicing: so there was just a handful of people. Furthermore we was before the 9/11 era and everybody was relaxed. The land owner was working on his tractor nearby, saw us and said nothing, so we stayed.

 

Now, staying at the end of a runway when ten aircrafts are going to take off is a dangerous thing. During the official exhibition day, when there are packs of people, those areas are strictly restricted. I don't know how things work in detail, but maybe public authorities take care of public areas, and private owners are responsible for preventing access in their own. So maybe they have a responsibility that it's not immediately obvious to see and if an accident occurs, they might be held liable for it.

 

Another example. In Italy there are a few areas that are dangerous because of natural gas emissions that can be deadly - they are minor volcanic phenomena. Some are private properties - sometimes partially accessible to people, in other cases they can be anonymous portions of lands in the middle of an otherwise safe countryside. It's a responsibility of the private owners of these areas to fence them. While it's fortunately a rare event, it happened that some people passed over fences and died - sometimes tourists, other times shepherds with their flocks.

 

I wrote these anecdotes just to say that perhaps people sometimes have good reasons for preventing access in their lands, other than their personal feelings - sure it would be better if they explained the reasons. In case of a clear and present danger the thing should be signaled, but there can be many not-so-dramatic scenarios.

 

In the end, if one owns a property, it's up to him to decide. He might be a rude person if he prevents access with no real reason, but in the end, while I appreciate polite people, I can't force anyone to be.