The California legislature is considering two bills on drones, one to require license plates and insurance and the second to require drone pilots responsible for property damage or injury to leave contact information. If passed the bills could influence other states to pass similar laws. (Ars Technica, January 15, 2-16, by Cyrus Farivar)
A report from the non-profit Open Briefing considers the threat of drones used by terrorists concluding that while the threat is real, it is not a simple matter to deploy drones in terrorist acts. For one thing lightweight explosives are not easy to come by. The report concludes that no single solution emerges, “The best defense against the hostile use of drones is to employ a hierarchy of countermeasures encompassing regulatory countermeasures, passive countermeasures and active countermeasures.” (Wired, January 18, 2016, by Brian Barrett)
Despite the curbs in the works for drones, Benjamin Mullin of the Poynter Institute, January 11, 2016, writes that 2016 could be a “breakout year for drone journalism.” the Federal Aviation Agency is expected to issue new guidelines in the spring for the commercial use of drones which would open the door for innovative uses to cover the news.