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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: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday October 20 2015, @09:17PM
Old-schoolers flew their traditional remote-controlled mini-airplanes and copters at large parks, in the boonies, or miniature landing-strips put there for that purpose. Cameras on that equipment were also lot more rare back in the day.
And most importantly, the old-skool operators had manners and accountability and respected airspace and privacy, and had lots of practice or actual training not only with the craft itself but with its inner-workings -- not only for reasons of public safety but because those aircraft were significant investments even to the serious hobbyist.
People caught flying quadcopters within 2 miles of an airport should be subject to 15-year prison-sentences; and it should be legal for property owners or residents to shoot down all unauthorized quadcopters hovering over their property lines, with the operator being charged with prowling. In fact, any person flying a quadcopter within a quarter mile of any residental property (even in urban areas)should be charged with voyeurism regardless.
I'll soften that stance a bit when the Shit Hits the Fan, but it's retarded morons who give the government excuses to fuck it up for everybody else, as some here have already stated.