Remember when a regional FAA inspector told a guy to take down his YouTube drone video? As we expected, that was a whoops. The FAA has now distributed a notice to its inspectors that tells them not to do this, and otherwise provides some guidelines on enforcement based on Internet media. Key paragraph:
In order to take legal enforcement action. Inspectors are reminded that:
• Electronic media posted on the Internet is only one form of evidence which may be used to support an enforcement action and it must be authenticated;
• Electronic media posted on the Internet is ordinarily not sufficient evidence alone to determine that an operation is not in compliance with 14 CFR; however, electronic media may serve as evidence of possible violations and may be retained for future enforcement action; and
• Inspectors have no authority to direct or suggest that electronic media posted on the Internet must be removed.
Note: Electronic media posted on a video Web site does not automatically constitute a commercial operation or commercial purpose, or other non-hobby or non-recreational use.
Comments
Methinks that at some point in 2015 "bad experiences" are inevitable: DJI Announces the Phantom 3: 4K Video in the World’s Most Popular C...
Some good news.
Meanwhile in Canada.... :rolleyes:
Thats good information, i could not imagine that this was actually going to be illegal for drone pilots to post videos on line. Thanks for this clarification.
It's nice to see that the people in charge at the FAA have more common sense than some of their regional inspectors.
It's basically really good to see the FAA taking a more positive approach overall.
This is certainly turning out to be the start of an interesting year, I hope we can keep it on a good footing.
There is still the possibility that one or more bad experiences could put us back into the deep end of the pool again.
So it would be a really good idea to stress safety and responsible (rule following) flying whenever possible.
Best Regards,
Gary