New Texas Laws

The latest.

http://www.infowars.com/texas-bans-drone-surveillance/


What a joke. So I can sit on my fence line and film my neighbors easier than I can use my Phantom to do it. yet its now illegal to use my phantom to even try. LOL. They are sooo clueless.. My little GoPro up against a high dollar camera on a tripod. If I were to attempt surveillance I wouldn't be doing it with a Phantom.
 
Such a stupid law, I cant see how flying a phantom with a gopro could be considered surveillance or spying unless by a complete moron. That's done by the real criminals same ones that make these laws with high altitude drones and satellites with highly zoomable cameras, yet these drone laws also don't apply to the gov, media or any other group that would likely use a multirotor for such reasons. How about charging Google for each image on Google Earth and Street view? that would probably even pay the us debt many times over lol.

Spying and surveliance is done in a way that the person won't know they are being filmed not with a noisy quad and wide angle camera. If I ever fly close to people in public I ask their permission anyway, always avoid flying in a way that may upset people. I expect Australia to soon follow and its a surprise we weren't first with such laws to be honest though I am sure ours have been drawn up quite some time ago.
 
pwright said:
So are you going to contact Gov. Perry and encourage him to veto it?


Not yet. So what have they done so far? Made it illegal to photo someone on private property. Same laws we already had. Ok so now if I am standing on the ground or flying in the air I have to have permission from others to film them and post to youtube etc.
 
As I read the Texas law, it applies not only to people standing on their own property who object to your images of them, but to anybody standing lawfully on ANY property who object. That means photographing any public park or National Monument with any people at all in it.
 
There are hundreds of YouTube videos with cops telling people they are not allowed to film in public. The US Supreme Court says otherwise. I suspect if someone fights this to court that the Texas law would be found unconstitutional.
 
I wonder how that law stands if your flying over private property WITH permission but filming a different property? If say I had permission to fly over fields with my camera and then I filmed something off the edge of that property without leaving the airspace that I have permission for?

I can see to the horizon at a couple of hundred feet up so is everything I can see in violation or not since I am in allowed airspace?

In the UK you need to be 150m from property and vessels and 50m from people if you have a camera but that's not a privacy concern its a safety concern. The camera is not covered by the caa it's covered under the data protection act and it only is an issue if the person being filmed is easily distinguishable (I can't even make out myself most of the time let alone anyone else). I am awaiting clarification from the ICO about recording but the only reference I can find for private users is concerning home security and cctv which basically says that the act does not apply for individuals.

However guidance issued by the Metropolitan Police has made it clear that

"Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel"

this often does not appear to have come to the attention of individual police officers (or security guards).
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,357
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31