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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the nothing-to-see-here dept.

girlwhowaspluggedout writes:

"When Pedro Rivera, an on-call photographer for Hartford, CT's WFSB-TV, used his drone to photograph the scene of a fatal car crash, he probably did not expect to be detained by the local police and be forced to ground his drone and leave the area. What he certainly did not expect was being suspended by his employer without pay for a week after the head of the department's major crimes division contacted WFSB-TV, requesting that disciplinary action be taken against him.

Rivera has now filed a federal lawsuit against Hartford's police department for violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights. The lawsuit seeks more than just damages it asks the court to declare that Rivera did not break any laws by operating the drone.

Shortly after the incident, Hartford police told the media that it was concerned with 'the safety of the officers and the privacy of the victim.' But, as Rivera told the Professional Society of Drone Journalists, 'If privacy is a concern ... it was not with me. It was with all the local news stations that were on the sidewalks with 'long lenses' and had shots so tight, that you could see inside the crash vehicle.' The photo he has provided and the GPS coordinates that are embedded in its EXIF data show what his drone was capable of photographing 150 feet from the accident site.

As Rivera succinctly describes it, 'What happened to me falls in the category of the war on cameras by the police. Whenever the police are videotaped, they try to detain people and confiscate the camera.' It's time to add one more marker to the War on Cameras Map'."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by dingo on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:11AM

    by dingo (1579) on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:11AM (#3030)

    I wonder why the privacy card is usually pulled when talking about drones, why not talk about airspace safety regulation laws?
    Privacy is important, I agree but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable letting just anyone controlling what is basically a couple of rotors spinning at pretty high rpms in suburban airspace.
    What if control is lost and the drone injures a person? Can anyone launch a drone legally provided it doesn't sport some sort of recording device?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by wjwlsn on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:29AM

    by wjwlsn (171) on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:29AM (#3041) Homepage Journal
    The only guidance that the FAA has regarding model aircraft is Advisory Circular 91-57 (http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_ circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/docume ntID/22425 [faa.gov]). Many hobbyists can (and do) mount HD cameras to their model aircraft and fly around in perfect compliance with AC 91-57. However, the FAA has started calling model aircraft "unmanned aerial systems" if they are flown for commercial purposes. Rightly or wrongly, that invokes a whole different level of regulatory/legal burden.
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:48AM

    by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:48AM (#3055)

    Because we shouldn't be terrified of everything that has the potential to injure someone or damage something, and we definitely shouldn't regulate things in this way if it's unlikely to cause damage and the behavior itself is not harmful.

    In the end, privacy should remain the primary concern. That's much more important than safety.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by tibman on Friday February 21 2014, @02:00AM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 21 2014, @02:00AM (#3974)

    Probably far less dangerous than parking your car near a golf course or baseball field.

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