Reports: Department Of Transportation To Require All Drones Be Registered

from the permission-based-innovation dept

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

We've been waiting forever for the FAA to finally come up with some sort of rules around public drone use in the US. Earlier this month we noted that the FAA had simply ignored the mandated deadline to put rules in place. And in the few cases where the FAA has said stuff, it's been ridiculous or just confusing However, reports are emerging that on Monday the Department of Transportation (which the FAA is a part of) will finally release some drone rules... and it's going to include the requirement that all drone purchases be registered with the government . Apparently this isfrom the FAA's rules, which still may not show up for a few years. While the details will matter, if the reports are accurate, that seems like a ridiculous, bureaucratic and cumbersome path to go down. While there are some fear mongering reports about errant drones flying in places they shouldn't, the vast majority of private drone use is not at all problematic. Demanding registration for every single drone, even the personal hobbyist kind, would seem like massive overkill that would likely decrease the usefulness and innovation in a very important emerging field of innovation. Also, it's not at all clear what this means for people who build their own drones (or want to).At best, it will only serve to drive more of the best innovation out of the US, rather than enabling it to happen here. I'm sure, in typical regulator-think, the bureaucrats assume this is no big deal, because "it's just a registration," but it's still a form of friction that makes it more difficult and annoying to own drones, at a time when the market and the uses of the devices is still growing. I have no problem with using the law to go after people who use drones for illegal purposes in some way, but a registration-first system seems to assume that many uses will be illegal, and if they aren't now, it makes it much easier to criminalize lots of different uses.

Filed Under: department of transportation, dot, drones, faa, registration, regulations