Hey Wetdog: that's perceptive and I think you picked up in it quite well. **** move or not- not quite illegal though -
DJI GEO Coming to Your P3 Soon
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Well if his explanation was "clear and made sense" how they would force it, I'm sure you could give us a brief summary here and save each us time from calling them individually.
He specifically asked that our group not share too much because it wasn't finalized and they were still talking to the FAA but he said if anyone has further questions to contact him on his Facebook page:
Brendan Schulman.
Brendan Schulman.
I will say, however, that they have some pretty good IT people working for them in the Bay Area- I know 2 of them 
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Hard to say. If you affected the performance of something you purchased without your consent it would seemingly run afoul of your property rights. But I'm sure lawyers on both sides could spend lots of money and time hashing it out to no one else's benefit.
Happens all the time via carrier updates and companies stopping support of older technologies. Good arguments on both sides.
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That's convenient.
Well I'll just tell you right now if your device is not internet connected there is no way for this flight system to know any particular upgrade is available let alone mandatory. Could they have put something in existing firmware that says its been X days since an update check, check now or it won't fly, like WetDog mentioned? Possible but unlikely and probably unprecedented, and if implemented definitely inviting a class-action lawsuit for rendering a paid-for product useless.
Not necessarily. You can ask Brendan about that. He's a top lawyer and the head of DJI legal and they have had discussions with both the FAA and DOJ so I'm sure they are aware of what is legal and what is not more than a "self-taught" lawyer.
Not necessar
I posted my concerns already in another thread, nobody had anything to say, when phantom pilots talk about flying over peaks or up the side of a mountain i begin to cringe assuming often they dont have LOS,
As a hang glider pilot since the early days i see the dangers looming as the use of quads-drones with fpv grow,
Please dont misunderstand me, i am also a phantom pilot but i feel many pilots only think in terms of light aircraft or commercial flights, when i and others alike set off on xcountry we dont only fly at or above cloud base, we use all that nature offers when needed, whether its scratching a mountain face trying to use a lizard fart in an effort to get out of a situation, or even at the end of a long flight trying to reach a goal-actually in dire need of reaching a possible landing place, we dont make any noise also we dont have a view above us, for us the danger of contact with other AC manned or otherwise is much greater at low altitude than way up where we would rather be,
Just some days ago i flew the phantom up and out a gap in a forest canopy, after this i could move to a place where i had LOS, i had a horrible thought remembering how often i found myself gliding sometimes as low as 6 meters above the tree tops in very controlled glide, the only lift allowing this would be the forest letting the heat off at the end of the day, i have had to do this for long distances in order to reach safety, any sudden change in speed or direction such as avoiding a phantom popping up in front would result in not being able to sustain this glide, the result would be serious injury or death, as a phantom pilot the loss is financial only,
I only ask that you are aware of all others with who you share the same airspace, maybe you never realised but at times there are many of us.
As a hang glider pilot since the early days i see the dangers looming as the use of quads-drones with fpv grow,
Please dont misunderstand me, i am also a phantom pilot but i feel many pilots only think in terms of light aircraft or commercial flights, when i and others alike set off on xcountry we dont only fly at or above cloud base, we use all that nature offers when needed, whether its scratching a mountain face trying to use a lizard fart in an effort to get out of a situation, or even at the end of a long flight trying to reach a goal-actually in dire need of reaching a possible landing place, we dont make any noise also we dont have a view above us, for us the danger of contact with other AC manned or otherwise is much greater at low altitude than way up where we would rather be,
Just some days ago i flew the phantom up and out a gap in a forest canopy, after this i could move to a place where i had LOS, i had a horrible thought remembering how often i found myself gliding sometimes as low as 6 meters above the tree tops in very controlled glide, the only lift allowing this would be the forest letting the heat off at the end of the day, i have had to do this for long distances in order to reach safety, any sudden change in speed or direction such as avoiding a phantom popping up in front would result in not being able to sustain this glide, the result would be serious injury or death, as a phantom pilot the loss is financial only,
I only ask that you are aware of all others with who you share the same airspace, maybe you never realised but at times there are many of us.
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Not necessarily you say... so you are saying the Phantom has a secret, hidden signal receiver accessible only by DJI for forcing upgrades? If this were so we would have heard about it by now, since anyone can take one of these apart and analyze the hardware. Oh yeah I guessed it, how they could do it without specific hardware: Its the GPS signal -- DJI has a secret deal with the DOD to slightly modulate a GPS signal on satellite vehicle 27 for 1 ms at a frequency V1.6 firmware is constantly analyzing in order to trigger a forced update demand! Wow DJI really has some pull with the DOD, who formerly wouldn't have known or cared about DJI plastic toys with the military-grade drones they get to play with.
Or maybe you're saying there is indeed a time-since-update-check in the firmware, and "Brendan" says its legal. Okay, will time can only tell on the legality of that. But one thing for sure is these companies lose (or settle) class-action lawsuits all the time when they do things their legal team advises them is legal, even after consultation with government entities.
Oso
Premium Pilot
This sounds quite awesome. It must be amazing.
Thanks for posting again about hang gliders and reminding us about their quiet presence out there in the skies.
Some guy on FB was saying DJI already implemented code in early firmware upgrades that just sitting there waiting for them to activate.. and Bingo Mandatory update... For anyone on firmware 1.06, may i remind you that you can only downgrade to 1.05.. Mandatory update is really easy to implement if DJI really wanted to...
Please, benevolent government. When you aren't too busy tapping my phone calls, texts, emails, MMS message, web browsing history, financial transactions, & location. If you could take a timeout from intercepting laptops & phones enroute & installing software to clandestinely activate my camera & microphone. Could you find a moment & protect me from myself. I feel so unsafe, benevolent government. Please save me!
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Very welcome, One of my concerns is that when incidents begin to happen ( and they will ) forced regulation follows which many here seem so concerned about, we had so many problems in the history of our sport, first rc glider pilots using the same ridges and ridge lift, accidents happened but for the most part such rc gliders were not out of the box and built by the pilots, we could have had them banned by the land owners who gave us permission but infact they were responsible, it worked out ok,
Some of the more prominent xcountry pilots were getting serious flack from other pilots who seen us as iresponcible claiming our presence at cloud base and above plus crossing cities would bring regulation which would ruin the sport for all, many of these fingers were pointing in my direction, right at the time i started to fly competition level,
I felt relief when para gliders came on the scene, finger pointers had more serious problems to contend with and sites were lost. people who would not normally be flying anything were all of a sudden turning up, farmers were outraged as ridges turned into a strange colourful disco scene, emergency landing fields almost never used were full, hang glider for these people were much too difficult and involved, to fly a glider you had to be determined- invest time and lots of effort,
From the word go people who were flying para gliders i felt were the same people who might be wind surfing but not flying, they had so little performance the window in which they could operate was very small, as this changed just to annoy i also started, but never serious,
I have been flying since a teenager taught by my father without my mother knowing, at some point i had a short affair with ultra lights and later got a ppl, i found i had little interest in powered flight and soon drifted away, my yearn to be in the air using the power of nature only stayed,
As for the phantom, i think its a fantastic camera platform, would be so sad if it got regulated or castrated by geo fencing beyond being useful.
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I'm sorry but "some guy on FB" does not sound like an authoritative source. What did this mystery FB person suggest would trigger this code to activate?
All this worry about firmware and apps limiting the use of the phantom are very real, i dont believe this will be caused by people wishing to fly high or long distance, making battery or or rc mods will not be the instigator,Bill Cosby used to say that. "Just take the pill sweetie. Its a good thing!"
Fact is the phantom and others are a fly out of the box AC, very easy to fly and only requires the reddies to buy it,
Very soon there will be many more in the sky flown by people who should not, many will not see it as a camera platform as intended and serious incidents will happen,
For most activities i would say the way to avoid forced regulation is self regulation, private drone use is becoming so common i dont think its possible.
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Agreed.
The biggie coming down the road - mark my words - is a hard range limit. So some have said the FAA thinks you can see these things at a maximum range of 1,000 feet. So they will start with that -- max 1,000 feet from your RC, enforced by firmware. Then they will ratchet it down from there to 500 feet and finally 100 feet of you at most, then this hobby is dead.
Sad part is, only dead for the people who seriously enjoyed it, when it only requires the cash , no brain needed the range and height limits will be there faster than we imagined, no idea what this means for the development in the industry, my guess is that will slow down also.
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