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posted by n1 on Tuesday October 20 2015, @11:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the department-of-droneland-security dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @02:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @02:15PM (#252744)

    After all the nay-sayers who have no skin in the game, it's nice to see support from someone who does have skin in the game.

    I see a lot of stuff being argued about that is obviously a bad idea. It doesn't take very long to realize that operating r/c aircraft of any kind in public isn't something that should really be done with only one person around or with out the consent of others who are not involved at all. It gets down to stuff as basic as every time an r/c helicopter lands if any toddlers are around they are guaranteed to run at it as fast as they can, with their heads leading, and aiming themselves right at the helicopter blades. The dangers go up from there.

    I don't want to see blanket registration requirements but I would like for everyone to understand what it is really like being a competent r/c pilot because we are about to get caught up in a lot of muck.