Even Hobby Drones Could Be Made Illegal In TexasOn a hazy day last January an unmanned aircraft enthusiast piloted his camera-equipped drone in the vicinity of a Dallas meatpacking plant cruising around 400 feet in the air. To test his equipment he took some photos of the Trinity River with a point-and-shoot camera mounted to his $75 foam airframe. When he retrieved the remote-controlled aircraft he noticed something odd in the photos: A crimson stream which appeared to be blood leaking into a river tributary. The pilot whose name has not been released notified Texas environmental authorities who launched an investigation. On Dec. 26 a grand jury handed down several indictments against the owners of the Columbia Packing Company for dumping pig blood into a creek. They now face hefty fines and even prison time stemming from the water pollution and the plant has since been shuttered. Neighbors had complained about noxious fumes and other issues for a while according to the local news. But investigators didn't get involved until this drone pilot took his pictures. Under a new law proposed in the Texas legislature sponsored by a lawmaker from the Dallas suburbs this type of activity could soon be criminal. Not the pollution--the drone.Texas House Bill 912--and similar laws under debate right now in Oregon and elsewhere--are driving a burgeoning debate about how to use and control unmanned air systems from an AR.Drone to a quadcopter. The Federal Aviation Administration is in the process of drafting new rules governing unmanned aircraft in civilian airspace including military-style aircraft. But in the meantime plenty of cheap easy-to-use aircraft are already popular among hobbyists and increasingly activists and law enforcement. Drones don't have to be Predators to cause privacy concerns in other words. In recent months they've led to new legislative action in California Florida Missouri North Dakota Oregon and Virginia.Texas state Rep. Lance Gooden a Republican is the sponsor of the latest bill which would make it a misdemeanor to take photos with an unmanned aircraft. It's unique because it criminalizes taking any data--photos sound temperature even odor--of private property using an unmanned aircraft without the permission of the property owner. Law enforcement officers could only use drones while executing a search warrant or if they had probable cause to believe someone is committing a felony and firefighters can only use drones for fighting fire or to rescue a person whose life is in imminent danger. Texas' border-patrolling Predator drones are exempt within 25 miles of the Mexican border. There are additional penalties for possession display or distribution of data captured by an illegally flown drone. Gooden said the goal is to protect Texans' privacy.For most people when you say unmanned aerial vehicle they think the Department of Defense--'Oh man the Predator that one with the missile on it.' That's the disconnect.We're not trying to get rid of drones; drones can be used for great purposes. We're not trying to interfere with hobbyists' use of drones. But you have a right to privacy on your property he said in an interview. Ben Gielow general counsel and government relations manager for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International countered that limiting privacy concerns to unmanned aircraft makes little sense. The response would be what about manned aircraft doing the same type of mission taking the same pictures? What about satellites and Google Earth? he said. What's the difference if you have a picture from a manned aircraft or an unmanned aircraft? This is really a data issue; it's about how the data is going to be used. So let's have a conversation about that.He and other drone experts said the bill demonstrates how much drones are misunderstood in this country and underscores why hobbyists and aircraft makers should be taking a more active role in explaining the technology's potential benefits. Gielow and others described unmanned aircraft as simply another tool easily cheaply and legally used by law enforcement and civilians for a host of reasons.Just like any tool yes it could be abused and used to do wrong. We need to ensure that there is transparency and accountability with the folks that use this technology Gielow said. An outright ban I think would be a shame--not only for this new industry but also for all the potential applications to do good.Those applications are numerous according to Patrick Egan an editor at the unmanned systems news site SUAS News and a civilian researcher for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Organic farms could use aerial surveillance to monitor crop health and target insect or weed infestations he said. Ecologists and animal welfare agencies could use them to hunt down poachers and monitor savannah wildlife. The U.S. Geological Survey which has a vibrant drone program uses unmanned aircraft to look at fault zones woodlands wildfires invasive species and more. Ranchers could use it to monitor rangeland; environmental agencies could use it for air sampling; and developing countries could use it to check crop health. The drone industry just has an image problem Egan said.For most people when you say unmanned aerial vehicle they think the Department of Defense--'Oh man the Predator that one with the missile on it' Egan said. The public has a perception of the military spying and taking out al Qaeda and to me that's the disconnect. People don't understand that you can feed a hungry world with this technology you can do public and private asset management you can do a myriad of good things with this technology that don't get press.These are bipartisan concerns evidenced by the involvement of Gooden's Senate cosponsor Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire and in Oregon anyway the American Civil Liberties Union. We are not and should not be a surveillance state. Drones should never be used for mass surveillance Becky Straus legislative director of the ACLU's Oregon office told U.S. News & World Report.Todd Humphreys director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin and a hobbyist who uses quadcopter drones for research said he can sympathize with that worry especially as drones become more ubiquitous. But it's complicated.If there are folks operating on private land flying over it and taking pictures that would bother me if it were my backyard or my barbecue or whatnot. So I sympathize with people who would find that intrusive he said in an interview. But the legislation doesn't discriminate between ill intent and intent to surveil and incidental surveillance. If I am doing research on university lands and I pitch my quadcopter in a banking maneuver there's definitely private land out there in the field of view of my camera right now. And it's this incidental byproduct of my fairly innocent mission that is getting me crosswise with the law.That's interesting because that type of incidental surveillance is exactly what led to the bloody river discovery. Had the Dallas hobbyist not been taking pictures of the river--which as Gooden pointed out is a public waterway--he never would have seen the illegal activity. The idea of slaughterhouse waste going out in the drinking water that's not cool said Egan. What is cool is that these people are being indicted on these charges because of that picture. He was just out there tooling around with his equipment.Gooden maintains that the hobbyist could have deleted any pictures showing private property and notified authorities who would have then had probable cause for a search. But if he decides he wants to move his drone over private property that is not something that would be admissible under this bill Gooden said.Laws governing airspace are already complex and adding new layers specific to drones are unlikely to clarify matters. In its 1946 decision in United States v. Causby the U.S. Supreme Court declared navigable airspace to be a public highway and within the public domain. Because of this there's no reason why a privately owned human-occupied aircraft can't fly over private property. What's more federal laws and court doctrines hold that Americans should have no expectation of privacy in publicly viewable spaces as Gielow put it. They do in homes and covered areas but not open land. Gooden countered that drones expand access--you'd hear a manned airplane or helicopter--and they glimpse areas and activities that would otherwise be invisible from a public vantage point. If you have a ranch you can pretty much expect that there are areas of your property that are not going to be visible to anyone. In a city there are areas of maybe your back porch or windows that people can't peer into he said. But with these drones you can come into someone's back yard turn on a camera and film their every move. This bill would simply say that's not acceptable.While the FAA and state lawmakers continue to tackle the problem drone operators and private landowners seem to have reached at least one possible solution. About two weeks after the bloody river discovery an animal rights group flew a microdrone above private property in South Carolina aiming to film what they said was a live pigeon shoot. The shoot never took place but a low-caliber gunshot did take down the drone.Humphrey said that's a Texas solution.I say go ahead and fly drones over private property and those who own it are legally entitled if they wish to try to shoot down your drone he said only half kidding. Let the market decide.It's an interesting gambit by Dallas but it will fail.The laws will probably be complex but even still I think it is much better to have accidental breaches of privacy rather than intentional. All of the good uses for drones are on public lands so I need no need for them to be legal to photograph private estates (other than to survey a criminal under a warrant).How about building a drone to kill a drone?
A platoon of drones protecting your property.
Drone wars!Because a farmer or some private person with a large amount of land couldn't find uses for remote controlled airborne photography. Checking fences crops herds irrigation lost animals etc. I don't know jack about farming but I could certainly think of uses for a small cheap drone.We are not and should not be a surveillance state Seems to be a notion to be in agreement with.@ johnt Sorry my message was a little unclear. They could definitely be useful on private lands but typically only by the owner of the lands. Besides farmers people can use drones to create a video of the property/ home they are trying to sell (and is already being done). My point was that they shouldn't be used by people to look into private places who are not the owners (without warrant at least).Some of the drone activities could be limited by laws that control stalking.just as Esther responded I am dazzled that someone can profit $9300 in one month on the computer. did you look at this link
jump30.âžÂšomBuys privacy for the rich. As pointed out if you have the money you can fly piloted photo reconnaissance flights all you want.
An inexpensive drone means any Joe can see what corporation XYZ is doing or not doing.I have a diffent take on this. because if you outlaw dones goverment and crimels would be the only one that has them. and in stan we should make them avialle to everyone discouage them with lieability laws. the way to filght spech is more spech and the way to fight surevilles is with more survillies.my co-worker's mother makes $67/hour on the computer. She has been out of a job for seven months but last month her check was $20072 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this site pie21.âžÂšomOkay I can understand an invasion of privacy in the sense that someone is using a drone to take pictures of women undressing or something but invasion of privacy when it comes to illegally dumping chemicals into a river/creek I say it is privacy well invaded. Cops need to do more of this.Maybe I missed something here ... people complained about something nasty and no one did anything ... a hobbyist inadvertently obtained photo's of a river being polluted and now some lawyer wants to make these hobbyist drones illegal.  Really?  They claim the argument of privacy and private land.
First the 'market place' in which the person photographed is public and that polluted river is public.  For some reason I am thinking that lawyer may represent some questionable characters and wants to make sure private hobbyist law enforcement that obtains something that can be used as evidence would be inadmissible or obtained unlawfully.  As far as private land and aerial photography ... just ask the property owner for permission to access ... it what I do when I want to go take pictures and it might infringe on someone's privacy  or private property ...Would a Pet Detective company be able to use a microdrone to search for a lost dog who could be traveling in a large area?