The U.S. Department of Transportation is set to announce plans to require registration for every drone sold:
Have a drone? You're going to have to register it with the U.S. Department of Transportation, according to NBC News.
The federal government will announce a plan within days that will require anyone who buys a drone to register it with the Department of Transportation, NBC reported Friday evening.
A Department of Transportation spokesperson told MarketWatch that U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Administrator Michael Huerta of the Federal Aviation Administration will release more details on Monday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.
"The hobbyist drone community has self-regulated itself for decades," said Lisa Ellman, co-chair of the unmanned aircraft systems practice at Hogan Lovells, a New York–based law firm. "But with the technology getting so cheap and improving so much, we have more and more drones."
FAA official Rich Swayze said last month that the agency expects that a million drones could be sold this holiday season.
"A lot of people are buying them and thinking they are toys," Ellman said. "They are not toys."
Florida lawyer Jonathan Rupprecht, author of a book on drone law, said he believes any plan centered around drone registration is a necessary first step toward regulating drones but is curious how the regulation will play out and whether the rule will apply to hobbyists with small drones.
(Score: 2) by Translation Error on Tuesday October 20 2015, @06:45PM
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday October 20 2015, @09:07PM
Requiring registration would make it possible to hold people accountable for their actions,
Really? How do you foresee that having any effect at all?
The authorities could jam or shoot down or follow a drone to its source, and then take the registration number and look up the owner and arrest them?
The problem was solved by jamming or shooting down or following to the source. Registration adds NOTHING.
Guns are registered. Look how much that has helped!!
You are buying into an enforcement capability that will be ineffectual, but will still leave drones unfettered in the hands of police.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:01AM
People are already showing that they'll blithely interfere with firefighting operations and fly drones over crowded areas, and in many cases, you simply can't determine who's responsible.
Can you even tell me if one requires two hands to count these "many cases"? Just because law enforcement is often too incompetent to catch people who do illegal things with drones, doesn't justify regulating drones.