Here is some food for thought, and yes this is for US citizens.

We all have posted a video on YouTube that we have recorded with our beloved quad-copters, but did you know that your video might get you into trouble with the FAA?  Your probably asking how.  Well, let's say you shoot a video of your dog using your quad-copter in the backyard of your own house and your well over five miles from any airport. Then you post said video on YouTube. That seems pretty harmless right?  The truth is it is quite harmless your hobbyist flying your quad-copter and made a video on your own property of your own dog did not receive any income for it.  Here's the caveat if your YouTube channel or the video that you posted allows advertising you just crossed over the line from being a hobbyist to commercial or business.   If you use music in your video that is not royalty-free you've crossed over the line and became commercial or business.  FAA Law  Even though you may or may not receive any revenue for these ads or music. The FAA can exploit this technicality and in some cases they have.  

Not saying that the FAA's trolling all of YouTube looking for people to bust, but if they do receive complaints about someone's video and find out that they are in fact having ads or the type of music run in their video they could take you down for a $10,000 fine or more.


I know that in your YouTube channel you have the capability of disabling ads from appearing on your videos. You may want to consider doing this when posting any videos filmed from a quad-copter or UAV.  Might not be a bad idea to make sure that your videos do not have any ads on them or running before them also if you use music in your video be sure that it's 100% royalty free.



-Dog

No you are wrong. That's not the way the law works. You must make the video as a commercial project if you make the video as a hobbyist  and then later it makes money that does not violate the FAA rule. Oh and by the way it's just a rule and not a law. The only law is if you fly in a unsafe manner.

tomlog@sbcgloba Posted at 2015-7-29 06:38
No you are wrong. That's not the way the law works. You must make the video as a commercial project  ...

Well you better tell the FAA that.  Here is proof that they will... Link to article
Beleave me I am all for this hobby,  if you can make a buck or two that would be a bonus.  Here is a good article worth reading about the ones that are on our side. Good read


-Dog

this is really dumb. They obviously have nothing else to do? Just because it was filmed with a camera that was attached to a drone should not make it any different than taking a video with your iphone. What are we supposed to start paying royalties to apple for taking photos with an iphone? This is ridiculous and pretty stupid. I live in Canada. Dumb question, (really dumb) do we have the FAA in Canada? If not what do we have? Do they have the same rules?

Michael M Posted at 2015-7-29 08:51
this is really dumb. They obviously have nothing else to do? Just because it was filmed with a camer ...

The FAA is for the U.S.A.  However there is the Transport Canada for your country here is a link to there webpage Link.  Canada has similar rules as well.
-Dog

The FAA already changed their minds on this issue, thankfully, since you may have no control over someone else making money on your video. It is still a fairly complicated situation though. As far as I know they only sent takedown notices to one pilot and it was because someone complained for other reasons.