A decision by a federal judge on Thursday could open the door for more commercial enterprises, such as as farming and journalism, to use drones in their daily operations. The judge dismissed a $10,000 fine the Federal Aviation Administration levied on a Swiss drone operator for using one of the aircraft while filming a commercial for the University of
Virginia’s medical school, "saying there was no law banning the commercial use of small drones," Kevin Robillard reports for Politico. "The ruling, for now, appears to make it legal for drones to fly at the low altitude (below 400 feet) as part of a business."
The FAA has claimed commercial drone use is illegal, but has said it can't effectively enforce the law. But National Transportation Safety Board Administrative Law Judge Patrick Geraghty ruled "that the policy notices the FAA issued as a basis for the ban weren’t enforceable because they hadn’t been written as part of a formal rulemaking process." (Read more)
Bill Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri journalism school, which offers a drone journalism class, and journalism graduate student Sangeeta Shastry, wrote for the Society of Environmental Journalists about a former student, Brendan Gibbons, who discovered that he could use a drone for environmental journalism by taking aerial photographs of the North Dakota Bakken Shale region. Gibbons said “the drone was never meant to replace a reporter’s most effective tools — interviews and documents,” but his drone images furthered his story in a way that wouldn't have been possible if he had been granted access to walk around the site. (Mizzou photo by Allen: Gibbons downloads a file from a drone)
And that's why drones could be an effective tool for community newspapers, Allen and Shastry wrote in the latest issue of SEJournal: "Because of their multimedia potential and relatively low cost (helicopters generally run $1,000 an hour), drones can even the playing field and lower barriers to entry for smaller news organizations looking to develop new technologies and sustain their competitiveness. Local news coverage in particular could benefit greatly. They’re also easily obtained. You could finish this article, go to amazon.com and have a fully-equipped, almost-ready-to-fly DJI Phantom quadcopter delivered to your door tomorrow." (Read more) Allen is an academic partner of the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog.
The FAA has claimed commercial drone use is illegal, but has said it can't effectively enforce the law. But National Transportation Safety Board Administrative Law Judge Patrick Geraghty ruled "that the policy notices the FAA issued as a basis for the ban weren’t enforceable because they hadn’t been written as part of a formal rulemaking process." (Read more)
Bill Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri journalism school, which offers a drone journalism class, and journalism graduate student Sangeeta Shastry, wrote for the Society of Environmental Journalists about a former student, Brendan Gibbons, who discovered that he could use a drone for environmental journalism by taking aerial photographs of the North Dakota Bakken Shale region. Gibbons said “the drone was never meant to replace a reporter’s most effective tools — interviews and documents,” but his drone images furthered his story in a way that wouldn't have been possible if he had been granted access to walk around the site. (Mizzou photo by Allen: Gibbons downloads a file from a drone)And that's why drones could be an effective tool for community newspapers, Allen and Shastry wrote in the latest issue of SEJournal: "Because of their multimedia potential and relatively low cost (helicopters generally run $1,000 an hour), drones can even the playing field and lower barriers to entry for smaller news organizations looking to develop new technologies and sustain their competitiveness. Local news coverage in particular could benefit greatly. They’re also easily obtained. You could finish this article, go to amazon.com and have a fully-equipped, almost-ready-to-fly DJI Phantom quadcopter delivered to your door tomorrow." (Read more) Allen is an academic partner of the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog.
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