drones

A bill has been introduced in the California Senate to make it illegal for drones to be flown over private property unless drone operators have the permission of owners, the San Francisco Business Times' Patrick Hoge reports.

In another drone-legislative development, a bill has been proposed in Oklahoma to shield anyone from liability if they destroy a drone that flies below 300 feet over their property and encroaches on their privacy, The Oklahoman's Rick Green reports.

An Arkansas bill that would have banned the use of drones over private property unless owners gave permission won't be taking off, Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette's Doug Thompson reports. Instead, the bill will be replaced with another bill to amend the state's anti-voyeurism laws.

The New York legislature is considering bills to restrict the use of drones by law enforcement, the Tenth Amendment Center reports: "Introduced on Jan. 7, Senate Bill 411 (SB411) by Sen. Gordon Denlinger (R-Syosset) and Assembly Bill 1247 (A01247) would ban law enforcement from using a drone in a criminal investigation with a few exceptions, and would prohibit any 'person, entity, or state agency' from using a drone for surveillance anyplace a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy unless they meet specific requirements."

The Colorado Senate is also considering limits for drones, the Associated Press' Kristen Wyatt reports. The bill also would require law enforcement to have warrants before using drones.

Maine is considering a bill that would go even farther, the Tenth Amendment Center also reports. The bill would place a moratorium on all drone use until July 1, 2017, except for emergency situations. After that, law enforcement agencies would need a court order or a warrant to be able to use drones. The law also would create a private right of action for violations of the law.

Connecticut and Georgia legislators are mulling drone legislation, The Plainville Citizen's Eric Vo and 13WMAZ 's Lorra Lynch Jones reports.

In Connecticut, "in December, the Program Review and Investigations Committee recommended limiting drone use for law enforcement in the absence of reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or a search warrant. The panel also recommended prohibiting remote operation of weapons including government and non-government drones and that all state and local government drones be registered with the Office of Policy and Management," Vo reports.

In Georgia, House Bill 5 has been introduced, spelling "out when and where researchers, law enforcement and private citizens can use drones, when they can capture images, and the bill would make breaking the law a misdemeanor, punishable by fines," Lynch Jones reports.

A British photojournalist was arrested by police as he used a drone above the scene of a fatal fire, The Guardian's Ben Quinn reports. Even though Eddie Mitchell had permission from the landowner to use his drone and is one of the few journalists authorized by the Civil Aviation Authority (the UK equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration) to fly drones, he was held in police custody for more than 5 hours and had the controller to his drone snatched from his hands. Mitchell told The Guardian "'it was an incredibly dangerous thing that they did. They didn’t know the dangers that they were putting myself, themselves and passing air traffic in. It could have flown off in any direction. They were passing the controller between themselves and eventually got it down with a thud.”'

The U.S. government missed a deadline at the end of 2014 to issue rules on drones, Reuters' Alwyn Scott and Robert Rampton reports. While the Federal Aviation Administration has given a draft of the rules to the White House, the Office of Management and Budget has not finished reviewing them yet.

Reuters also reports that the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups want the FAA rules to preempt state or city laws regulating the use of drones.

Finally, the Federal Aviation Administration is close to releasing rules to integrate drones into the American airspace by early 2015, the Associated Press' Joan Lowy reports. But Congress will likely make key decisions. One of the priorities of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee "is writing legislation to reauthorize FAA programs and overhaul aviation policy. The bill is expected to include directions from lawmakers on how to integrate drones into the nation's aviation system. The last reauthorization bill, passed in 2012, directed the agency to integrate drones by Sept. 30, 2015, but it's clear the FAA will miss that deadline," Lowy further reports.

The FAA's rules, which will take another couples of years to finalize, will likely include restrictions on drones flying at night, being kept within the sight of operators and being flown below 400 feet. The FAA may also may more controversially require drone operators to have pilot's licenses.

Could the FAA's drone policies violate the First Amendment?, TechDirt's Mike Masnick asked in a post on Christmas Eve, citing a post from law professor Margot Kaminski. If the FAA can authorize Hollywood to use drones for commercial purposes on a pilot basis, why can't other drone operators fly their machines wihtout restrictions? "'The Supreme Court has long acknowledged that a too-discretionary licensing regime can raise serious First Amendment concerns. This is true even where a complete ban might be permissible,'" Kaminski noted.

When the Federal Aviation Administration granted waivers for Hollywood filmmakers to fly drones on movie sets, federal regulators did so despite warnings from safety inspectors that the plans were too risky and should not be authorized, The Washington Post's Craig Whitlock reports: "The warning turned out to be prescient. On Wednesday, a camera-toting drone operated by one of the filmmakers, Pictorvision, flew off a set in California and disappeared, according to an FAA report." 

The agency is facing 167 applications to be permitted to use drones in commercial applications and is not keeping up with the technological advances in the drone industry, Whitlock further reports. The agency is expected to miss the September 2015 deadline on integrating drones into the American airspace by two years.

Whitlock has a delayed investigative report into how the FAA is functioning right now amid a lot of pressure to get drones going safely but quickly. One problem, Whitlock writes, is that a consultant was hired to help streamline the FAA's review process, but the company was also an advocate for the Hollywood filmmakers seeking approval for drone use. The relationship has since ended.

New York City Councilman Dan Garodnick has introduced a bill to ban the use of all drones in the Big Apple except by law enforcement officers who have warrants, Ars Technica reports. Councilman Paul Vallone introduced a separate bill that would restrict drones, among other limitations, to not being flown at night, out of the operator's eyesight or above 400 feet.