FAA Considers Lifting Hollywood Drone Ban

Drones are pretty cool. (Don’t believe me? Just ask Martha Stewart.) Not only can they take selfies, deliver packages, and walk dogs, but they also have the power to radically change the way companies across industries do business.

We’re starting to see this all over the world. Drones are delivering schoolbooks to students in Australia, spraying crops in Japan, and making real estate videos in the UK. And in the US? Unfortunately, we’re behind the times in drones. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a blanket ban on commercial drone operations until it issues a comprehensive set of rules for operating the vehicles. (Although the proposed rules are expected this year, they probably won’t go into effect until 2015, at the earliest.)

This slow regulatory process is frustrating companies and “drone advocates”: they want drones, and they want them now.

Related: How Drones Are Changing the Way We Do Business

The FAA appears to be finally cracking. On Monday, the agency announced it was considering exempting seven small TV and film companies from the ban.

If approved, it could have huge implications, opening the door for companies in other industries to apply for exemptions for specific operations. Already, three additional industries—agriculture, power line and pipeline inspection, and oil and gas flare stack inspection—are considering applying for exemptions from the drone ban.

To ensure safety, the Motion Picture Association of America has included certain standards, including that the total flight time be less than 30 minutes, the flight altitude be less than 200 feet, the pilot be properly certified and the drone weigh less than 55 pounds.

Enterprising civilians already use drones for just about everything, so it’s time to expand their use beyond fiction into something actually useful.

Related: Revolutionizing the Film Industry with Remote-Controlled Drones

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