Lawsuits, bans, privacy fights, and the case law being written around drones.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced a new drone enforcement program on April 16, 2026, that offers first-time individual violators reduced civil penalties or shorter certificate suspensions in exchange for admitting liability and surrendering their right to appeal. The Drone Expedited and Targeted Enforcement Response program, known as DETER, was published in a press release the…
A British Columbia court has ordered Kelowna realtor Derek Leippi to pay a CAD $5,000 fine (roughly USD $3,600) for flying a DJI drone from a boat on Okanagan Lake during the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire, an incident that pulled a helicopter pilot off fire suppression to chase the unmanned aircraft. PetaPixel reported the sentencing…
Oakland is about to become the second U.S. city to run a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise on AI-powered garbage patrol. The city council is moving forward with a six-month, $150,000 pilot contract with San Francisco startup Aerbits, which will fly 72 missions over roughly 1,440 miles of Oakland streets, as reported by NBC Bay Area.…
FAA issues FDC 6/2824 replacing the ICE NOTAM: drops blanket drone ban and National Defense Airspace classification, adds Department of War and DOJ to covered agencies.
The FCC is seeking industry input on drone spectrum, experimental licensing, and Counter-UAS rules under the "Unleashing American Drone Dominance" initiative. Submit your comments for Docket No. 26-74 before the May 1 deadline.
The Department of Defense filed a memorandum with the Federal Communications Commission opposing DJI’s petition to be removed from the agency’s Covered List, as first reported by Broadband Breakfast on April 7. The filing’s most consequential detail is what it doesn’t fully reveal: according to the DoD’s memo, the national security determination that led to…
Skyrover posted a “We’re Here to Stay” announcement to its official Reddit community this week, formally titled “A Letter to Our U.S. Customers: Our Long-Term Commitment to the Drone Community.” The statement lays out a five-year roadmap covering FCC compliance, US-based customer support, and a promise to “explore US-based manufacturing and a localized supply chain.”…
Imagine if the news media put out an alert saying, “The federal government wants you to keep a watchful eye and report any suspicious red vehicles that you see.” Think about the number of phone calls and messages that authorities would receive about a red car driving down their street or a red car parked…
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