Federal Aviation Administration

Two separate reports are showing the privacy issues raised by the growing use of drones.

The Hartford Courant's Kelly Glista reports about how a beachgoer called the police because a teenager was flying his drone at the public park. He wasn't breaking any laws, but the incident raised the question of what expectation of privacy people have in a public place: "The right to personal privacy is both profoundly valued and highly debated in the U.S., but the advancement of technology has blurred the line between what is public and what is private, from cellphone records to emails and information posted to social media. In Connecticut and around the country, drone technology is quickly becoming the next arena for that debate." Lawyers told the Courant that drone operators are like photographers: Photographing strangers in a public place is legal until the activity becomes harassing or a nuisance.

Matt Riedl, writing for the Wichita Eagle, out of Kansas, reports "interest in personal drones – which can cost as little as $1,000 to set up – has been rising exponentially. Consequently, local drone enthusiasts say the FAA is going to have to update its policies in the coming years to accommodate what they believe is a revolutionary and profitable technology." Lawyer Patrick Hughes told the Eagle that using a drone to do something you can normally do isn't going to change the law, but privacy issues could arise depending upon how drones are being used. The parameters for privacy and drone usage will likely develop out of FAA regulations or federal legislation, Hughes said.
 

Many in the burgeoning drone industry are frustrated by the Federal Aviation Administration's glacial pace in issuing new rules to regulate the use of these lightweight flying devices and regulators' application of old rules to ground the use of drones for newsgathering and other commercial purposes. Gigaom's Jeff John Roberts suggests the FAA should use a permit system like the one used for motor vehicles. The CEO of Airware, a startup that provides hardware and software to drone businesses, told Gigaom "the best way to resolve the ongoing legal conflicts involving drones is to designate separate airspaces for manned and unmanned aircraft, including a buffer zone between them. Doing so, he said in a recent phone interview, would permit a more relaxed set of rules for drones. Specifically, [CEO Jonathan] Downey suggested this might involve a permit system where drone owners could obtain a license after passing a test."

Even though the Federal Aviation Administration restricts the use of unmanned aircraft for commerical purposes, enforcement is "scattershot," "emboldening even more drone operators," the Wall Street Journal reports. While regulation lags, Matt Waite, the journalism professor who runs a drone-journalism program, told the WSJ that the "'longer it takes to have the rules of the road in place, the more the technology advances and the cheaper it gets, the closer we get to some knucklehead doing something dumb and hurting someone.'"

Another little media law nugget: TV station KATV in Little Rock, Ark., was informed that using a drone to film the aftermath of recent tornadoes was an FAA violation but the station wasn't told to stop using drones, WSJ reports.  "The FAA said it regulates the use of drones, not how news organizations use footage," WSJ further reports.

Media outlets have filed an amicus brief in support of a drone hobbyist facing a $10,000 fine for using a drone to make a promotional video, Gigaom reports. The media companies argue that the Federal Aviation Administration is violating the First Amendment by banning the use of unmanned aircraft for news photography.

Read the full brief here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/222414475/NYT-Et-Al-Amicus-for-Drones

The implications of a decision by an administrative law judge that the Federal Aviation Administration can't impose a $10,000 fine for the commercial use of a small UAV, or drone, is overstated, C. Andrew Keisner, an attorney writing in TVNewser, says. The FAA will likely proceed to create binding rules for drones under the Administrative Procedure Act, and it is "risky for advertising & media companies engaging UAV operators to enter into any long-term contracts that assume the FAA will not proceed with making whatever binding rules it deems necessary to regulate UAVs," he says.

An administrative judge has ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration "lacks clear-cut authority to ban the commercial use of drones in the continental U.S.," MarketWatch reports. "Some lawyers and drone users have argued for months that the FAA has no statutory power to enforce its prohibition of commercial-drone use," MarketWatch further reports. The decison can be appealed to the National Transportation Safety Board and then to federal court.

Legal issues involving drones are an emerging practice area for lawyers, the Connecticut Law Tribune reports. One incident, involving a journalist trying to use a drone to shoot video of a fatal car crash, is being investigated by Hartford police and the Federal Aviation Administration, CLT also reports.

Jonathan Orleans, of Pullman & Comley attorney, told CLT "'there will certainly be negligence and invasion of privacy claims made. And where the drone was operated for a government entity, such as for law enforcement purposes, there will be issues of government immunity. Given the multiplicity of potential uses for the technology and the inventiveness of lawyers, the potential for legal work is quite large."'

The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into a TV station's use of a drone to investigate a car crash, the Associated Press reports. "The case of the Hartford crash, in which the victim's body was left hanging out of a mangled car, highlights some of the safety, privacy and ethical issues that journalists will wrestle with as interest grows in using drones for newsgathering," the AP notes.

For now, the FAA has not authorized the use of drones for commercial purposes, including journalism, the AP further notes. The FAA isn't expected to propose regulations on the commercial use of drones weighing less than 55 pounds until November.