Published on August 27, 2014 by Adam Griffith
Photography drones are facing a perilous atmosphere of distrust and legal chaos. In these circumstances, even small mistakes can have big consequences. A shift in public sentiment against private drone usage could easily result in the application of restrictive regulations, or perhaps even conditional bans.
I don’t think it would even be hard to make this happen single-handedly. I have a list of ways that I’d do it, just in case I ever find myself bored on a Saturday:
1. Attempt dramatic close-up of at outdoor rally using a quadcopter with a GoPro duct-taped on.
2. Catalog the sleeping habits of everyday by surreptitiously snapping photographs of them through the windows of their thirtieth floor apartments at 3AM. Post said photographs on Tumblr.
3. Play chicken with Jumbo Jets at .
4. Attempt to land drone on the back of an endangered .
5. Post live streams online of local children’s playgrounds recorded from 40 feet in the air.
I see you ;)
It would probably take an attempt or two, but as soon as I got some traction on major news networks, a small public outcry against “invasion of privacy” or “endangering public safety” would mount and, within the week, proposals for bans on the use of drones by private citizens would flood into legislatures around the nation.
Bing. Bang. Boom. No more drones.
Full article here What does it take to get drones banned?
Comments
@mcallenaerial - +1
But there is already private investigation companies in america that do some of this things, even worse, and they have profit doing this.
We can not control all the population.
Guns kill people and still legal.
What is wrong with doing it like any other car/boat/plane/gun???
You obtain a license for which you went through some sort of training and are more or less "screened", acquire insurance and the UAV has to pass some kind of airworthy certification.
Im already a member of the AMA. Why not let their network of local clubs be the boots on the ground for all this? Might even be a good way of bridging the gap in public awareness.
if sub 2kg gets approved for commercial operations without approval in AUS it will be interesting to see if any incidents occur and if anyone follows with similar laws
I concur.
and these opportunist companies like 3DRobotics that sell under powered, over hyped, mass produced toys as RTF tools for professionals only makes things worse.
I once commissioned an Iris to do a a few HD stills at 60 meters and a simple fly over of a lakeside wedding venue (luckily this was before the reception!!!) and watched it slowly fall 3 mins into its 4th flight. The specs and company reps swear it can carry a gopro with gimbal and tall landing legs. But 2 puffy Li-Po's and never achieving a flight time greater than 7 minutes, proves otherwise.
Proper aerial photography/videography is not just about being technically able to put a camera in the air.
It will be interesting to see what type of reaction we get from products like the Hexo+ and the AirDog. These to me seem directly marketed towards a reckless use of the technology to begin with.
And dont forget delivering cellphones and drugs to your local prison yards. J/K.
Sadly, too near to the truth.
And the way it's going so far I wouldn't put it past the FAA to "sponsor" exactly that - quietly of course.
That way they could pull off what they really want - no more hobby drones (or RC planes for that matter).
And all the commercial stuff could go to their DOD buddies (and benefactors).
Bah - Humbug!
Gary
Some food for thought here.
Regards,
TCIII AVD
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