Flying for DroneBase.com in Texas

[TexasGoose]

Has anyone here done missions in Texas for DroneBase.com? I am legal to do DroneBase work from the FAA perspective but after reading "Chapter 423: Use of Unmanned Aircraft" that the Texas Legislature passed a few years ago for the Texas Privacy Act I am beginning to think DroneBase is illegal in Texas. Are there any DronePilots from Texas that have looked into the legality of this? The way that I am seeing it is if you don't have permission from the property owner to shoot the property then you're breaking the law (even from sidewalk). Assuming you do have permission (which is impractical because the owner probably isn't there all the time), you also need permission from all of the properties you capture when you do a panorama. I have contacted DroneBase about this but they will only respond with "Yes, we have pilots in Texas" but won't speak to the legality which is understandable I suppose. I hope I am wrong about this because I would love to do work for DroneBase but at this point it seems like a no no from the state standpoint. I have attached a link to the Texas drone laws below. Thoughts?

Chapter 423

 

[Sinisalo]

It seems like everything hinges on what the definition of surveillance is. "Sec. 423.003. OFFENSE: ILLEGAL USE OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT TO CAPTURE IMAGE. (a) A person commits an offense if the person uses an unmanned aircraft to capture an image of an individual or privately owned real property in this state with the intent to conduct surveillance on the individual or property captured in the image." I would reach out to Nick at dronebase and ask him to contact a lawyer, or you could contact a lawyer yourself for interpretation of the law. To my layman eyes it looks as if it is okay to capture images of real property if your intent is not "surveillance"

 

[bow]

Funny how google maps and the google car don't get harassed for taking the same pics


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[TexasGoose]

Thank you Sinisalo, that's exactly what I was thinking. I have reached out to a few lawyers who deal with this law in Texas but none have contacted me back. I will keep trying. Hopefully someone who has already had this question answered will stumble across this thread.

 

[Sinisalo]

Thank you Sinisalo, that's exactly what I was thinking. I have reached out to a few lawyers who deal with this law in Texas but none have contacted me back. I will keep trying. Hopefully someone who has already had this question answered will stumble across this thread.

You might want to reach out to this guy, he is a drone lawyer Drone Attorney and Legal Assistance - Drone Law Attorney Services - Rupprecht Law, PA

 

[Helihover]

There are two pretty long Drone Base threads going ATM on this site........

 

[TexasGoose]

Yeah I read through both but neither of them really dig into the legality of the service. Most are about the service itself.