Door to door selling of drone photos/video
PostPosted:Tue Jun 12, 2018 6:58 pm
In the past week, we've had someone going door-to-door selling aerial shots and video taken from a drone (this correlates with reports from a few weeks ago of a drone being seen repeatedly over the village).
They're evidently taken from overhead and probably within 50m of people's property, often sweeping shots along the streets and back gardens. Their website is very professional, and covers hundreds of houses, if not more, and also promotes itself as a service to estate agents and event organisers.
I chair our local Parish Council, and I have now had several residents concerned that this is an invasion of privacy, dangerous and illegal.
I've refreshed my understanding of drone regs on the CAA website, and from what I can tell
neither the name of the company selling the photos, nor the individual doing door-to-door, appear on the CAA's SUA operators list. (The individual has told people that he took the shots). So it appears that he is not authorised by the CAA (albeit I guess he could conceivably have a separate company for filming different to the one running the website).
Therefore I assume:
Before I direct the complainants towards the police, am I missing or misunderstanding any of this?
I'm guessing the most likely outcome is that there is another company involved in the filming that is correctly authorised - as given the extent of the website, I struggle to believe this is a 'below the radar' illegal activity.
They're evidently taken from overhead and probably within 50m of people's property, often sweeping shots along the streets and back gardens. Their website is very professional, and covers hundreds of houses, if not more, and also promotes itself as a service to estate agents and event organisers.
I chair our local Parish Council, and I have now had several residents concerned that this is an invasion of privacy, dangerous and illegal.
I've refreshed my understanding of drone regs on the CAA website, and from what I can tell
neither the name of the company selling the photos, nor the individual doing door-to-door, appear on the CAA's SUA operators list. (The individual has told people that he took the shots). So it appears that he is not authorised by the CAA (albeit I guess he could conceivably have a separate company for filming different to the one running the website).
Therefore I assume:
- he can't undertake commercial activity (selling photos)
He shouldn't have been 'over or within 150 metres of any congested area'
He shouldn't have been 'within 50 metres of any vessel, vehicle or structure which is not under the
control of the person in charge of the aircraft'
Before I direct the complainants towards the police, am I missing or misunderstanding any of this?
I'm guessing the most likely outcome is that there is another company involved in the filming that is correctly authorised - as given the extent of the website, I struggle to believe this is a 'below the radar' illegal activity.