California governor outlaws paparazzi drones, days after approving police UAVs
A bill preventing paparazzi from targeting celebrities with camera-equipped drones has been signed by California Governor Jerry Brown, just days after he was criticized for shooting down a bill requiring police to obtain a warrant to use a drone.
California governor vetoes bill requiring
warrants for police drones
The law, approved on Tuesday, bans the use of a drone to capture
images and record voices of people who did not give their
permission for it.
The bill’s author, Ed Chau, applauded the governor for keeping
the state’s legislation abreast with modern technology.
"As technology continues to advance and new robotic-like
devices become more affordable for the general public, the
possibility of an individual’s privacy being invaded
substantially increases," he said, as cited by AFP.
Earlier, Sean Burke, founder of the Paparazzi Reform Initiative,
campaigning for stronger privacy laws, said drones were a
“huge privacy concern.”
The National Press Photographers Association, however, opposed
the bill, arguing it could restrict journalists’ ability to
gather news.
“We believe that there are appropriate laws in place to deal
with these kinds of issues, whether it’s trespassing, stalking or
harassment,” the association’s General Counsel Mickey
Osterreicher said, as cited by the Orange County Register.
“To single out what is ostensibly a First Amendment-protected
activity becomes problematic. There’s a clear distinction between
having a reasonable expectation of privacy in your own home and
being out in public. There are enough measures on the books to
deal with that without having to draft one of these laws.”
Days before restricting drone use for paparazzi, Brown granted
more freedom of drone use to the state’s police.
On Sunday, the governor vetoed the Drone Accountability Act,
which would have required police agencies to obtain a warrant
before using an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, for
surveillance.
One of that act's authors, Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell,
commented on the veto by saying that it shows "the era of
government surveillance continues.”