New Texas law gives fines for private drone use. Allows police to use drones without warrants

[Major Nikon]

More than 40 state legislatures have debated the increasing presence of unmanned aircraft in civilian airspace, with most of the proposals focused on protecting people from overly intrusive surveillance by law enforcement.

But Texas' law tips the scales in police favor -- giving them broad freedoms to use drones during investigations and allowing them to bypass a required search warrant if they have suspicions of illegal activity -- while also limiting use of small drones by ordinary residents.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Law-Gets-Tough-on-Public-Private-Drone-Use-223820691.html

[Humanist_Activist]

1. Clarify what a "small drone" is, I have a 50 dollar RC helicopter with a small digital video camera.

Is that considered a "small drone"? Are they going to be illegal in Texas soon?

[Major Nikon]

5. They won't be illegal, but...

If you use them to photograph a river of blood coming from a meat packing plant and then post the pictures online, said meat packing plant can sue you.

[gopiscrap]

2. Leave to fucking Rick Perry and his band of idiots

this sounds like a constitutional violation to me.

[Xipe Totec]

3. How are we supposed to inseminate queen bees now? nt

[An_enlightened_soul]

4. Are drones flying into people's homes?

If they're not, I don't know why police would need a search warrant. I don't see any difference in police legally surveilling something from a plane or a helicopter and them doing so from a drone.