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Like a drone falling out of the sky:
The Federal Aviation Administration's requirement that hobby drone users register their devices was struck down in an appeals court Friday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of John Taylor, a drone hobbyist who had challenged the legality of the FAA's drone-registration program.
The program, which was instituted in December 2015, required hobby drone owners to register through an FAA website for a $5 fee. Drone hobbyists were then issued a unique identification, which they were required to mark on their drones. Within the first month, nearly 300,000 drone owners had registered.
Previously:
All Drones in U.S. to Require Federal Registration
FAA Drone Registry to be Publicly Searchable
Drones and RC Models Must be Registered by February 16[, 2016]
Nearly 300,000 Recreational Drone Owners in U.S. Database
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Saturday May 20 2017, @01:55PM
There is a microscopic amount of sad news in that the sub-250g limit for unregistered drones was ambitious as hell at the time but the hobby rose to the challenge. I built one and it was fun. Its the kind of project where you solder the motor controllers to the flight controller because connectors weigh too much (like a couple grams!) Also I used a serial receiver because thats 3 wire connection vs like 3+ servo connections to the flight controller. Its a lot of fun. Its a tolerably good flyer although a bit unstable and I can only fly on windless days. I used cleanflight for my flight controller OS. I know there are sub-250 camera drone builders but thats getting a bit difficult so I didn't try.
As for safety, my drone weighs about as much as a softball (well, maybe 20% fatter but whatever) and it generally flys a heck of a lot slower and more controllable so I don't worry about it. Those ones that weigh as much as an artillery shell and move about as fast are a bit worrisome.