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Government The Military United States

Trump Signs Law Forcing Drone Users To Register With Government (thehill.com) 468

President Trump signed a sweeping defense policy bill into law on Tuesday that will allow the government to require recreational drone users to register their model aircraft. This comes after a federal court ruled in May that Americans no longer have to register non-commercial drones with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "because Congress had said in a previous law that the FAA can't regulate model aircraft," reports The Hill. From the report: In December 2015, the FAA issued an interim rule requiring drone hobbyists to register their recreational aircraft with the agency. The rule -- which had not been formally finalized -- requires model aircraft owners to provide their name, email address and physical address; pay a $5 registration fee; and display a unique drone ID number at all times. Those who fail to comply could face civil and criminal penalties. While Congress directed the FAA to safely integrate drones into the national airspace in a 2012 aviation law, lawmakers also included a special exemption to prevent model aircraft from being regulated. A D.C.-based appeals court cited the 2012 law in its ruling striking down the FAA drone registry, arguing that recreational drones count as model aircraft and that the registry counts as a rule or regulation.
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Trump Signs Law Forcing Drone Users To Register With Government

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  • Big Government (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @09:30PM (#55729133)

    I love reducing government restrictions by creating new ones.

  • Huh (Score:4, Funny)

    by fyrewulff ( 702920 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @09:30PM (#55729135)

    I thought he was all about the deregulation? *crickets*

    • Re:Huh (Score:5, Insightful)

      by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @09:38PM (#55729157)
      He is all about deregulation. For corporations.
    • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @10:49PM (#55729475)

      The passage of the law just allows the FAA to issue such a rule. It could be that under Trump they would not do so after all... this could be a case where a petition might do some good.

      Remember the original rule was instituted by the Obama FAA.

      • by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @10:51PM (#55729483) Homepage Journal

        The passage of the law just allows the FAA to issue such a rule. It could be that under Trump they would not do so after all... this could be a case where a petition might do some good.

        Remember the original rule was instituted by the Obama FAA.

        Well, the point of worry here is...that this was snuck through attached to another bill, and no one noticed before it was too late.

        The time to petition and call legislators to protest over this was BEFORE this new law was snuck through.

        The federal govt has no reason to know I have a drone. As long as I fly it legally, they have no need to know of my property.

        • As long as I fly it legally, they have no need to know of my property.

          Then keep flying and fight the law in court. If you're using it on private property and below 700 feet, I say it's a violation of your fourth amendment rights to even know. Furthermore, this would probably be a state's right, not an enumerated federal power.

          • No, the FAA's got statutory power to regulate the airspace - from an inch off the ground on up - across the entire country. Having each state regulate the airspace differently would be absurd. The only reason this particular matter came up was because congress - in 2012 - explicitly set aside recreational model aircraft as not being subject to any further regs. This appears to change that law, and has nothing to do with the FAA's broader statutory authority.
        • The time to petition and call legislators to protest over this was BEFORE this new law was snuck through.

          That was *A* time to call, to be sure.

          But there's still another chance to convince the new FAA head that it's a bad idea to try and register every single drone.

          I'm a bit surprised no-one has pointed out there's a way you could paint such a move as an action of lobbying - I'm sure DJI would not be happy with this kind of regulation, at all. Where are all you people who believe Trump is controlled by the

          • by Holi ( 250190 )
            DJI was all for it when the FAA originally put out the rule. Not sure why their position would change.
    • Re:Huh (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dwillden ( 521345 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2017 @05:49AM (#55730601) Homepage
      This is a law, passed by Congress by attaching to the NDAA. HE didn't do anything, but sign the bill. Not signing it would have been a much bigger issue as it would have held up funding for the military.

      If anything complain about the congressional practice of attaching off-topic issues to must pass bills to slip them into law. Both parties are guilty of doing this.
  • ...Enforcing that.

    Make the "drone cops" wear propeller-beanies.

    Strat

    • Oh, c'mon. We already have a full fledged police state in place. What's one more teeny tiny regulation atop the millions of laws & regulations already enforced on the people? Plus it will help feed the Gulag. We need that if we want to beat Stalin's record for biggest Gulag of all time. Who doesn't want that?!

  • mental jackpot achieved by your beloved POTUS.

  • So, register all drones. What about guns? I don't see how the 2d Amendment prohibits gun registration (it talks about the right to "keep and bear" arms, not "keep and bear anonymously"), so if everyone has to register their drones, why shouldn't they have to register their guns?

    • Gun registration is the first step that enables the government to enact later confiscation (a pattern seen in other countries). That is why the push back against it is so strong.

      Since you mention the Constitution, there are lots of things NOT protected by the Constitution that don't require registration- knives, bear traps, fertilizer, chainsaws, etc. Drones fly around and are recovered/intercepted remotely and registration could be used to trace back to the owner. There are already methods in place for d

    • so if everyone has to register their drones, why shouldn't they have to register their guns?

      You don't have a constitutional right to fly drones. Having to register guns can be seen as a restraint. Having to register drones can be as well, but again... you don't have the right to fly drones. That's a privilege.

      I hemmed and hawed but I registered when it was free the first time. It's not like you register your drones, you register your self. Then you put your registration ID on your drones. I didn't want there to be any question about whether my AMA insurance would cover me if one of my aircraft sta

      • by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @11:23PM (#55729621) Homepage

        you don't have the right to fly drones. That's a privilege.

        You have the right to do anything that isn't illegal. That's how our government is set up. I don't even see how the federal government has the power to regulate this - this is a state's rights issue.

        • I don't even see how the federal government has the power to regulate this

          Because congress long ago gave the FAA statutory power over the national air space. It's not complicated.

    • by Altrag ( 195300 )

      What if my drone has a gun on it? Do I have to register it or not? Oh the confusion!

    • So, register all drones. What about guns? I don't see how the 2d Amendment prohibits gun registration (it talks about the right to "keep and bear" arms, not "keep and bear anonymously"), so if everyone has to register their drones, why shouldn't they have to register their guns?

      What if I have a gun on my drone, will I still have to register it? Or would this be a violation of my rights to form a militia?

  • by mschuyler ( 197441 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @09:51PM (#55729211) Homepage Journal

    I would suggest making it legal to shoot those little fuckers out of the sky. If people behaved with them it would be great, but they don't. People don't want government spying on them but have no problem flying their drones over to the neighbor's pool to see if the can pick up a few nude bathers. Let me use the drones as target practice and I'll be fine.

    • I would suggest making it legal to shoot those little fuckers out of the sky.

      All of these regulations treat drones as aircraft. You shoot at an aircraft under an circumstances, you are open to a federal felony conviction. Have been for many decades. Let me guess, you'd also like the right to shoot at people driving by your house with the car radios too loud, right? Or anyone standing in the street with binoculars? Just shoot 'em, right?

  • Tourists/vistors...? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Vylen ( 800165 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @09:54PM (#55729227)

    Ok .. and do tourists, visitors to America, people on work visa's, etc, do they need to register their drone if they decided to bring one with them on their trip?

    How is that going to work?

    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      They would never believe someone from another country would have a legitimate reason to bring a drone in. They're just assume you're a terrorist since you're at the airport with one.

    • Ok .. and do tourists, visitors to America, people on work visa's, etc, do they need to register their drone if they decided to bring one with them on their trip?

      How is that going to work?

      ' Don't be stupid. Visitors won't be allowed in either soon.
      I feel that American is truly great now. How about you?

    • by Altrag ( 195300 )

      Its actually not a big step up. Customs is almost certainly going to be asking you about it anyway so its not really a huge extra burden to punch that into a database. And there's not even much worry about (additional) invasion of privacy since America's border authorities already treat non-Americans as barely even having basic human rights never mind the stronger rights that Americans are granted (which is actually unconstitutional -- "inalienable" doesn't mean "only for people we like".. but another thi

    • by cyn1c77 ( 928549 )

      Ok .. and do tourists, visitors to America, people on work visa's, etc, do they need to register their drone if they decided to bring one with them on their trip?

      How is that going to work?

      They don't need to register their drone if they want to extend their vacation in Guantanamo.

      But didn't you hear? Trump's building a wall, so they won't be coming anyway.

  • wtf is a drone? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is a $10 Chinese quadcopter a drone? TFA doesn't explain what it is.

    • Any aircraft over 9 ounces, was the previous rule. Likely will be the same standard if the FAA uses this new authority to put the process in place legally (as opposed to illegally, the last time around). So, yeah, that little pink plastic RC copter from the mall toy kiosk is seen by the FAA as an aircraft, and the person operating is is subject to the full weight of the FAA's power to fine and bring other charges for mis-use.
  • by Hal_Porter ( 817932 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @10:15PM (#55729327)

    http://www.thedrive.com/aerial... [thedrive.com]

    The controversial drone policy introduced by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2015, requiring recreational drone users to registers their UAVs, was constitutionally overturned in May of this year, but it may end up being enforced again next year by being included in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act of 2018.

    According to Bloomberg, both the House and Senate agree on slipping the unmanned aerial vehicle registry into the defense bill, as demand for regulation in the drone industry is at an all-time high. Most recently, the White House expanded drone-testing regulations to presumably push toward standardizing nationwide UAV delivery. The current administration may deem a nationwide hobby-drone registration as a necessary first step toward that.

    The previous policy was overturned

    http://www.thedrive.com/aerial... [thedrive.com]

    In 2015, the FAA officially announced that all owners of drones heavier than 250 grams (which is about as light as a cup of water) must be registered as "drone operators" in a national database. This, of course, startled some, as it seemed this regulation could mark the beginning of the end for freedom of use regarding hobby drones. Others felt it was a fair deal in the right direction, as we reported on last year. However, in a twist of turns, the District of Columbia circuit court of appeals overturned this legislation on Friday, May 19th, as its compatibility with a previous FAA ruling from 2012 is far from symbiotic.

    The 2012 "FAA Modernization and Reform Act" rules that the FAA has no right to "promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft", and as Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh sees it, the 2015 ruling clearly interferes with this established law. He adds, "Statutory interpretation does not get much simpler. The Registration Rule is unlawful as applied to model aircraft." Essentially, recreational drone users have been exempted from the aforementioned registry, which according to Popular Science, over 800,000 people have joined since 2015. This is something we at The Drive keep a close eye on, and an issue we regularly report on.

    So Congress put a paragraph into the 2018 NDAA to restore registration

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]

    The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington overturned the FAA drone registration system in May, finding that earlier legislation passed in 2012 didn't give the agency legal authority for it. A one-paragraph addition to the defense bill said that the registration system "shall be restored" as soon as the legislation becomes law.

    https://www.congress.gov/bill/... [congress.gov]

    (d) Restoration Of Rules For Registration And Marking Of Unmanned Aircraft.-The rules adopted by the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration in the matter of registration and marking requirements for small unmanned aircraft (FAA-2015-7396; published on December 16, 2015) that were vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Taylor v. Huerta (No. 15-1495; decided on May 19, 2017) shall be restored to effect on the date of enactment of this Act.

    • In 2015, the FAA officially announced that all owners of drones heavier than 250 grams (which is about as light as a cup of water) must be registered as "drone operators" in a national database

      I hope they qualified "owner" a bit. Otherwise any manufacturer or retailer with unsold inventory is going to have a lot of paperwork to do.

  • #MAGA.

    Oh, for fucks sake, I can't even do the sarcasm thing anymore...

  • Serious question... I don't live in the USA, am I now prohibited from bringing my recreational drone over the border?
    • Serious question... I don't live in the USA, am I now prohibited from bringing my recreational drone over the border?

      All foreigners will be banned so this will cease to be an issue...

  • Look, there is a lot of very good reasons to regulate drones. Their cameras are both an invasion of privacy and also allow people to control them from very far away.

    But there is no reason at all to include model aircraft that do NOT have cameras on them. The lack of a camera means you can only use them within visible range.

    • That's not at all true. If I took the camera off of my 'copter, I still have the GPS datalink to my controller enabling BVR flight. You're not *supposed* to fly BVR, but the lack of a camera is not the limiting factor.
    • No, the camera-less aircraft can still be an aviation hazard. That's the point. NONE of this has anything whatsoever to do with privacy protection. Just like the local news helicopter's subject to all sorts of FAA rules about its specs, maintenance, operators, flight plans, etc., but the fact that it carries very powerful cameras is completely outside the FAA's purview, which is exactly how it should be.
  • Let's be real... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @11:13PM (#55729563) Journal

    Show of hands: Who here believes Trump knows what the fuck he's signing? Seriously.

    • by Alypius ( 3606369 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2017 @12:21AM (#55729813)
      We have to pass it to see what's in it.
    • He signed a law that clarified the FAA's statutory authority on a matter that his predecessor acted out without the legislature (again, as he did on so many other things) and got smacked down by the courts for operating outside of the constitution's boundaries (again). This sets the state for the FAA to arrive at rules in this area that aren't directly illegal, like the last one under Obama.
  • Tie some helium balloons to your drone.

      Presto, Chango, it's a Blimp, not a drone.

  • by Jarwulf ( 530523 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2017 @12:52AM (#55729919)
    I'm confused. On the posts before on this topic for the last few years there seemed a mild consensus for pragmatic regulation of drones. And you'd generally have several pages of detailed reason based calm discussion. Now all of a sudden every poster on this thread is passionately against drone laws and hurling nothing but ad hominins about how Trump is a monkey? The quality of discourse here really has plummeted.
  • Time to get my paper airplane collection all registered, as they're Model Airplanes! :-O That's going to get expensive as fuck really quick tho at $5/plane

  • by cjonslashdot ( 904508 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2017 @09:41AM (#55731137)

    I am libertarian and hate unnecessary regulation; but drones pose a huge threat to aviation - both commercial and sport aviation. Imagine hitting one of those things in the windshield of your airplane at a few hundred miles per hour. Death is the certain result. And now every kid has a drone.

    Drones that are able to fly above 100 feet should be required to have transponders. Sport amphibious aircraft fly at low altitude when landing on a lake.

    Perhaps registration is not needed; perhaps what we need is to require the manufacturers to embed transponders in the things, and have a $100,000 fine for flying a drone without a transponder or a defective transponder. Something needs to be done.

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