"There are two possible lines for making the determination, Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, suggested to The Huffington Post: weight and use.
"The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) makes a big deal about commercial use or use by law enforcement," he said. "I'm much more comfortable with the requirement that corporations or startups or police or fire fighters have to register them, so there's some accountability for using public airways for commercial or civic use."
"One problem with a registry is that it almost always has more information than is needed," said Calo, who suggested that the government tread with care here.
"In the privacy community, we talk about bouncers not needing to see your ID, which has your birthday, address and other data. All they need is a verification, up or down, that you're over 21. What happens is we wind up having much more information than we need in order to address the problem. It seems to me that if we have a beacon that identifies itself as 'X, Y and Z,' it's sufficient to ensure that if a drone crashes or goes where it shouldn't be, it can be tracked. That would be better than a person attesting to buying a drone.""
- Date Published:10/20/2015
- Original Publication:The Huffington Post