IDS 2: The Drone Release Act (Debating)

[Dereich]

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Sponsor: Maxwell

[Maxwell]

This is a bill from the northeast, and I brought here because I felt it was common sense legislation.

[Flake]

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I have an amendment.

[Maxwell]

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Amendment is considered friendly.

24 hours for any Legislator to object to Flo's amendment.

[Dereich]

"Invasive" is an awfully squirrely term. Does it mean the same thing for public and private property? Who gets to decide whats invasive? Define it broadly and pretty much anything can be invasive; this would just replace one ban on drone usage with another.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

"Invasive" is an awfully squirrely term. Does it mean the same thing for public and private property? Who gets to decide whats invasive? Define it broadly and pretty much anything can be invasive; this would just replace one ban on drone usage with another.

Agreed, I can easily see that becoming a problem.

[Maxwell]

Then I will bring forward an amendment tomorrow defining the word and we can discuss the definition of "Invasive". That is definitely a concern of mine.

[Maxwell]

Flo's amendment is approved, so now the bill looks like -

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[Maxwell]

I'm wondering if this definition is still too vague

Invasive - Being used on another person's property without that person's express permission.

[Dereich]

How does that work with the air? What distance around someone's house is considered "being used on another person's property"? Drone users might say "I didn't turn it on or remote control it from their property, so its not invasive", while drone opponents might try to turn their areas into a no fly zone.

Maybe instead something like "Within 150 feet of a person or their domicile without their express permission". But that still leaves camera issues....

[Maxwell]

That's at least a good start though.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

This has way too many loopholes to where it can be abused. Why do we need commercial drone usage anyway? So Amazon can use them to ship things to us?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

This has way too many loopholes to where it can be abused. Why do we need commercial drone usage anyway? So Amazon can use them to ship things to us?

Yeah, I don't think I can support this bill for the reasons Duke mentioned.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Those concerns aside, why do we need commercial drone usage? Does a private citizen really need to use a drone? How can they be used for non-intrusive means aside from a corporation like amazon using them? Any other use to me seems like it would be for not so good reasons.

[Maxwell]

In the bills current form, yes, I think it's problematic, but with a clearer definition, which I will propose soon enough, I think we can build from here.

And drones, in spite of their bad image, can do good. For instance - a drone can deliver you beer while you are ice fishing!, and the Washington Post has an interesting article on their use. I don't think we should deter commercial usage of this developing technology.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Maybe we can make it available for businesses for that purpose, but allowing anyone to use a drone seems like a bad idea. Jealous boyfriend? Use a drone to spy on your girlfriend! Think your daughter is doing drugs? Drones are good for that too.

Yes they can be used for commercial means. If this is what this bill is for, let's clarify our intent.

[Maxwell]

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Added an amendment to clear up some issues.

Legislators will have 24 Hours to object.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Looks much better to me. I want to see smart regulations in place before these are sold to the public.

[Maxwell]

Do you have anything in mind?

This goes to Legislator X as well.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I would like to also see a specific penalty for the abuse of drones (maybe 1-2 years in prison).

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I agree with X. We need a penalty for abusing drones that will deter people from using them in an inappropriate manner.

[Maxwell]

Amendment passed.

What's next?

[Maxwell]

I feel like legislating these regulations would not be good because we here are not experts in the drone technology. What about a board, made up of experts in the field, that give us a recommendation of reasonable regulation that we then vote yea or nay on?

[Maxwell]

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[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Looks good, but I still don't get why anyone needs corporate drones.