It won't shock you to hear that local drone owners are upset. The industry group UAS Sweden contends that the court might be killing Sweden's drone market. Aftonbladet, meanwhile, points out that the ruling doesn't make sense in the context of existing laws. It's legal for Swedes to capture images in public places, so why is it wrong just because that camera is attached to a quadcopter? There are no journalistic exceptions, either, which is odd when other laws allow it.

The one consolation is that the ruling may be hard to enforce. It's up to county administrative boards to report any violations to the police, and it could be difficult to make charges stick if there isn't evidence of a camera drone in flight. Of course, that raises another question: why rule against these drones when it could be relatively easy for amateur operators to ignore the decision? The move may primarily punish those pros who have a good reason to record drone footage, whether they're journalists or filmmakers.

[Thanks, Samuel]