Rise Of The Drone Hobbyists

a headache for air traffic controllers and a public safety nuisance from these novice flyers.

The range isn't that great on these radio or cell-phone controlled things is it?

Not to worry, it will all work out in the end

Link

Circle of life.

Interesting point about the range. I wonder if they adopted roaming cellular technology if that would work?

Cellular communication would work, and with a modern wireless camera and battery system the range could be quite far, but the drone would need to be fairly large and expensive. Still Possible thou, but not common in the consumer market (I believe the cellphone-controlled drones available in the stores use much shorter range wireless not cellular communications).

This is not a new thing or problem, amateur RC control plane, helicopter, rocket and even scale model planes with jet propulsion have been around for years.

I will admit that with the advances in technology including wireless cameras (the ability to see has always been a big limiting range factor) the range has increased while the price has decreased.

This has made RC vehicles more accessible to the public, but I don't think there is a real issue of people flying drones in to sensitive areas (yes there have been some incidents and the perpetrators were caught and dealt with by the laws already in place), or for people to always carry umbrellas to protect against falling drones from the sky.

As for any surveillance/stalking/covert espionage/etc issues, you can get better information from the internet, google maps, the target's facebook page, twitter or a person wandering around with a modern cellphone and binoculars.

Really?, Then I guess this is news to you.