Drones Are For the Rich

​It's looking more and more like the wild west days of drones are coming to an end. And the more news that is leaked about the Federal Aviation Administration's upcoming rules proposal, the more it looks like drones are not for you and me.

The Wall Street Journal ​is reporting that an early draft of the long-awaited drone rules is extremely restrictive: Commercial drone operators won't be allowed to fly at night and will have to keep their aircraft below 400 feet and within their line of sight. But, most importantly, in order to fly a drone commercially, you'll have to be a certified pilot of standard, manned aircraft.

That distinction immediately makes drones for the rich. It will instantly kill hundreds of small businesses that have thus far not had any sort of safety run-ins. It turns "drone pilot" into something that only large corporations can afford to hire and something that only rich people can afford to become.

We probably should have seen this coming: Earlier this fall, the FAA granted limited waivers for Hollywood ​pilots to operate drones commercially, provided that they do so under extremely strict conditions (fly on closed sets, use drone pilots who also have manned pilot licenses). The first commercial drone license, meanwhile, went to a big oil comp​any.

If the FAA does indeed require manned pilots' licenses to operate commercially, it'll be a tragedy. One of the major promises of drones has always been the technology's potential to democratize the air.

Affordable drones  ​have allowed student filmmakers to get professional-looking aerial shots for a couple hundred bucks. They've allowed independent farmers to monitor their crops on the cheap. They've allowed (or would have allowed) cash-strapped TV stations that had to sell their news choppers to get eyes in the sky again. They've let an untold number of people start aerial photography companies and carve out a niche for themselves taking pictures of weddings and real estate.

To score even the cheapest private pilot's license, you're looking at spending at least $8,000, according to an investigation by​ Bloomberg. If the FAA moves forward with this plan, it's instantly cutting out the small drone businesses and turning aerial photography into a luxury item. Prices of hiring the precious few who already have a pilot's license or are willing to jump through the hoops necessary to get one are going to skyrocket.

The rise of drones as a popular technology has scared a lot of people, the FAA included. Though there's no current indication that it's going to start grounding all flights, a court just ruled that the agency can fine anyone at any time for flying a drone. With that kind of power and a history of using it, it's hard to blame any drone pilots who decide to leave their aircraft in the garage until further notice, and that's a shame.

It's a shame from an economic perspective, it's a shame from an innovation perspective, it's a shame from a First Amendment perspective, and, frankly, it's a shame from a privacy perspective. Drones ​have the potential to be used as watchdogs on authority, news reporting tools, and art-making devices. Drones are a privacy concern, sure, but I'd rather have the power to put an eye in the sky spread between the masses rather than concentrated among several megacorporations and law enforcement groups.

No one can predict exactly how this will all play out, but right now, it's looking more and more like power will be concentrated among a few companies that already have the money needed to play the game. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues to run laps around the United States in the industry.