Why Did the FAA Ask a Drone Pilot to Delete His Website?

(Source: motherboard.vice.com)  

Right now, flying a drone commercially in the US still falls into a bit of a legal grey area. One thing that is absolutely legal, however, is operating a website. So why did the Federal Aviation Administration recently ask that a drone pilot take his down?

A new FAA rules interpretation issued last fall probably give​s the agency wide latitude to prohibit certain drone flights (it has not yet been tested or challenged in court), but that interpretation does not give the agency the ability to demand people take their photos off the internet. Yet that’s allegedly what happened last week to a pilot in Portland, Maine.

Steve Girard said he’d only been flying his drone since September, which is why he didn’t set out to become a commercial pilot. Instead, he took photos of the surroundings near his home and posted them on his website, called Xtreme A​erial View. He said people enjoyed the photos, so he started selling them, for a couple bucks a pop.

“I was just doing some sunrise and sunset pictures, getting some really great stuff. So people said I should sell them as backgrounds for computer desktops,” Girard told me. “I was selling them for $2 each. It was pocket change and I only sold a couple.”

Girard said he hasn’t done any drone-for-hire flights, which is something that the FAA has tried to crack down on in the past. His website still has less than 500 views. Still, someone claiming to be Bobby Reed, manager of the FAA’s Portland Flight Standards District Office, called him.

“We’re looking at your website and an investigator will be in touch with you regarding the limitations which you may be exceeding with regard to advertising drones and aerial footage that puts you outside the limitations of a hobby,” Reed said. “They’ll be looking for you to pull down the website. You can operate as a hobby, but there are serious implications, and there are fines and penalties associated with [commercial] activity.”

The FAA calling up or otherwise thr​eatening commercial operators with cease-and-desist notices is nothing new, but the pull-down-your-website deal is.

Continue Reading at motherboard.vice.com…