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
Related Stories
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.
The FAA has released its final rules for drone registration requirements. Every small unmanned aircraft used for hobby and recreational purposes must be registered (you can begin registering on December 21st). This includes traditional radio controlled models in addition to autonomous and semi-autonomous drones. "Small" means 0.55 to 55 lbs.
takyon: Registration costs $5 per operator, but the fee will be waived for the first 30 days to encourage early registration:
Anyone 13 and older can register themselves as an operator; younger children can operate drones under adult supervision with proper registration.
This is only one of the elements of FAA's drone-related rulemaking. The agency is also tackling a set of comprehensive rules for recreational drone fliers and another one for commercial drone operators, such as Google or Amazon.
For now, the FAA's guidance for fliers of store-bought and homemade drones remains the same: Keep your drones under 55 pounds; fly them within your line of sight and below 400 feet; stay at least 5 miles away from an airport; avoid flying near stadiums or crowded places; and take some drone classes or join a club for extra safety.
From Gizmodo:
On Monday, the FAA will launch its online registry for drone operators with the aim of collecting personal information from the owners of these unmanned aircraft. But according to a report from Forbes, all those names and addresses will eventually be publicly available. Which seems... kinda scary?
Over at Forbes, John Goglia says he's been poking the FAA for answers ever since the FAQ about registration went up. Of particular concern are two contradictory statements from the FAA and DOT. The FAA says only their agency and a contractor will have access to the personal information collected. The DOT says that all information regarding registered aircraft must be made publicly available. So Goglia emailed the FAA until he got this answer:
"Until the drone registry system is modified, the FAA will not release names and address. When the drone registry system is modified to permit public searches of registration numbers, names and addresses will be revealed through those searches."
To me, despite the fact that I don't have a drone (nor do I plan on getting one), this is a very scary slippery slope that we are running down. Today it is a publicly searchable drone registry, what comes next? That I own a gun? My tax returns? How I voted in the last few elections? My medical history?
While I can see the want to keep tabs on drones that are able to carry cameras, and there are tremendous privacy concerns about it, having a database like this be publicly searchable is a VERY frightening prospect.
Nearly 300,000 recreational drone owners have registered their unmanned aircraft in a new federal database intended to help address a surge of rogue drone flights near airports and public venues, U.S. regulators said on Friday.
[...] The registration applies to drones that weigh between 0.55 pound (250 grams) and 55 pounds (25 kgs).
Experts have said 700,000 to 1 million unmanned aircraft were expected to be given as gifts in the United States last Christmas alone. People who operated their small unmanned aircraft before Dec. 21 must register by Feb. 19.
[...] The current system is available only to owners who intend to use drones exclusively for recreational or hobby purposes. The FAA is also working to make the system available for non-model aircraft users including commercial operators by March 21.
Officials say the agency is also working with the private sector to streamline registration including through the use of new smart phone apps that could allow a manufacturer or retailer to register a drone automatically by scanning an identification code on the aircraft.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-drones-registration-idUSKCN0V02FI
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:40PM
How can a honest airway robber survive these days, I wonder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @01:34PM
...from a violently enforced monopoly? This. I expected this.
(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.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:41PM
China To Require Drone Owners To Register, Just As Similar US Requirements Are Struck Down [techdirt.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday May 20 2017, @07:11PM (3 children)
I doubt it'll happen, but it'd be nice, in principle, to get that $5 back with interest, as it was unlawfully taken from citizens who already pay enough taxes to support representatives who are apparently more concerned with increasing regulations than defending their freedoms and privileges.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Saturday May 20 2017, @08:06PM (2 children)
I dunno. There are two sides to that coin. These are not toys the FAA went after, but drones that could actually hurt people if used incorrectly. Not to mention, the invasion of privacy and all other sorts of bad shit that can go on with unregistered drones flying everywhere. You'll probably change your tune if you had a bunch of drones constantly buzzing overhead, and crashes with injuries become more prevalent.
The thing I liked most about the whole program was the filing of flight plans. Anybody doing commercial business with drones should be filing flight plans, and the FAA should be able to establish airways above neighborhoods and allow property owners some privacy.
I'm okay with your Wild West attitude to drones, if you're okay with me having a high powered rifle shooting them out of the sky when they violate my perimeter.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:42PM
i don't know, sticks are not toys, you know, someone could POKE AN EYE OUT...
better register all stick owners of 6" or more...
i don't know, stones are not toys, you know, someone could hit your eyeglasses and POKE AN EYE OUT...
better register all stone owners of 1 oz or more...
i don't know, driving metal boxes around filled with explosive liquid is not a toy, you know, someone could blow up and -even worse- POKE AN EYE OUT...
better not let those death machines loose at all ! ! !
i don't know, playing with balls inside the house is dangerous, you know, someone could break some china and subsequently POKE AN EYE OUT...
better all wear bubbles 24/7/365...
an infinitude of otherwise harmless things COULD result in some bad outcome (mostly poking eyes out, according to parents), BUT THEY ALMOST NEVER DO...
(how many of your friends actually ended up with their eyes poked out after they did stupid things ? ? ? thought so, we'd all be blind...)
but, hey, let's guide the use of EVERYTHING in the universe based on the 1-in-a-million worst outcome...
suck it up, buttercup, or i'll poke your fucking eyes out...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @01:15AM
It's a free endless supply of drone parts for yourself. And since they won't have any registration tags to prove it is theirs, they will have a hard time proving it isn't YOURS :)
Now to build a microwave gun to zap these things down without doing too much damage to the pricey bits! :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @03:44AM
I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power.