Everything (Legal) You Wanted to Know about Drones [145]

Nasir and Matt end the week by diving into the topic of drones and where the law stands with their usage. Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: All right. Welcome to our podcast where we cover business in the news and add our legal twist. And my name is Nasir Pasha. MATT: And I’m Matt Staub. NASIR: I keep starting our intro with an accent but maybe I’m just hearing it. MATT: What type of accent? I can’t tell anything. [REWIND] NASIR: Business in the news and add our legal twist. I don’t know what kind of accent – some Midwestern/Californian accent. MATT: I mean, where you’re from, and it’s similar to me, we’re both from the Midwest but we’re not southern enough to get the southern accent. NASIR: No, we’re not. MATT: I wasn’t close enough to Chicago to get that. You were a little bit closer to the East Coast than I was, but you don’t get any of that. So, we’re in a spot where it’s pretty – well, I shouldn’t say “normal.” NASIR: Normal. Yeah, we’re pretty normal. I’m sure we use some words, like you probably use the word “pop” too, right? Or no? MATT: I use all the different words. I don’t favor any of them. I just say whatever. NASIR: I’m the same way. I think I’ve gotten used to using the word “soda” because, when I say “pop,” people will look at me weird – at least in California they did. Here, everyone looks at me weird in Texas. MATT: There’s a thing that came out, I don’t remember if it was a year ago or two years ago but it basically looked at 25 different words – you know, like, soda, pop, Coke, something like that – and it had a map of the US and it was color-coded on who said it. It was actually pretty cool. NASIR: Yeah, absolutely. There’s even different phrases that describe different situations. MATT: Someone recently made a comment to me that wasn’t from the US and they were saying, “You know, if the US formed today, all these different states would be different countries because a lot of them are so different than other parts.” I mean, you and I are very good examples. California and Texas are very different than pretty much every other state in the US. NASIR: Yeah, even New York. I mean, those are the three states that we practice in. It’s interesting how the law has developed in the three different states and how you can see even just taking one body of law like employment law and how each state approaches general concepts differently. I think, from an employment perspective, New York and California are pretty close in their interpretation and how they implement it but still very different, and Texas is on a different planet altogether for sure. MATT: Yeah, that’s very true, very true. Well, we’re going to talk about a lawsuit just to set up the topic, but it was in Virginia so none of this. I was hoping it would apply to one of the three states we talked about. NASIR: You’re always looking for a transition, I know. MATT: But we’re going to talk about drones. And so, the thing I was getting to about Virginia was this guy just settled with the FAA which is the Federal Aviation Association, is that right? NASIR: I think Administration, right? MATT: Yes, Federal Aviation Administration, you are correct. NASIR: Yeah. MATT: So, he just settled with them for a whopping $1,100 on a $10,000 fine. NASIR: Sweet. MATT: Pretty good, 10 percent of what he owed. So, you want to know what he was fined for? NASIR: Yeah. MATT: The fine was that he was using his drone for commercial purposes and this was a few years ago, wasn’t it? 2011. NASIR: Yeah, this was before drones really became a consumer product. MATT: So, he was operating it for commercial purposes but using it also in a reckless manner while filming a commercial at the University of Virginia. So, I don’t know what the reckless manner part means. NASIR: Yeah, he was probably hired to film or take some photos or something to that effect and didn’t know how to drive the drone, apparently. MATT: It’s actually funny – quick side story – I went to...

2356 232