Everything I've read and heard about this FAA rule is that it will more or less crush independent designers and pilots, leaving the skies to commercial companies.
I feel like this title is trying to spin a very, very bad thing.
I feel like this title is trying to spin a very, very bad thing.
Zoos: will they create a thriving new economy for animal cages? We report, you decide!
Outline any hypothetical new regulation and of course there will be someone who specializes in helping you comply with it. Straight-up broken window fallacy.
The FAA has spent the last two decades making sure the US is in last place when it comes to commercialized drones, and this is a continuation of those efforts.
The risk here is far removed from the severity of the regulations and the associated cost to hobby flight. There is also an argument to be made that the government may have interests in maintaining surveillance asymmetry - prying citizenry can see much farther through the eyes of a drone, and this can act as a minor check on government power.
So yes, there is real danger even with small unmanned drones.