{"id":114123,"date":"2015-03-05T20:41:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T03:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drone-bill-yet-to-soar\/"},"modified":"2015-03-05T20:41:48","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T03:41:48","slug":"drone-bill-yet-to-soar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drone-bill-yet-to-soar\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone bill yet to soar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado lawmakers are debating how to protect citizens from an invasion of privacy as a result of the emergence of drones. A bill to address the issue was delayed Tuesday as lawmakers continue to work on the complicated and fresh issue.<\/span>Mark Lennihan\/Associated Press file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday delayed a vote on a measure that aims to crackdown on spying through the use of drones after concerns were raised that the bill would turn even regular camera users into criminals.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1115, sponsored by Rep. Polly Lawrence, R-Littleton, started with good intentions \u2013 to protect the privacy of citizens from the emergence of drones, which can take stealth photographs from the air.<\/p>\n

But an amendment to the bill would take the focus away from \u201cunmanned aerial vehicles,\u201d instead applying the measure to a wide range of \u201cemerging technology,\u201d including any \u201cartificial, mechanical, or electronic\u201d device.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers worry that the revised bill is too broad, moving away from the original intent, which was to focus on drones.<\/p>\n

Instead, a wide spectrum of individuals using cameras and smartphones could face a misdemeanor as a result of the current proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t this law make it a crime to knowingly take a photograph of somebody under circumstances where they have a reasonable expectation to privacy?\u201d asked Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Cherry Hills Village, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where the bill was heard.<\/p>\n

Arnold Hanuman, an attorney for the Colorado District Attorneys\u2019 Council, responded by pointing out that frivolous cases would be checked by a jury.<\/p>\n

The bill comes as the U.S. Department of Transportation\u2019s Federal Aviation Administration has proposed regulations that would govern the use of drones, potentially making Colorado\u2019s effort redundant.<\/p>\n

But Lawrence believes Colorado should address the issue on the state level. The federal effort could take years to implement.<\/p>\n

Those in the drone industry worry about focusing too much on unmanned aerial vehicles themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology should be agnostic. The delivery mechanism should be agnostic,\u201d said Allen Bishop, founder of Reference Technologies, the Lafayette-based distributors of drones. \u201cIf you couple the two together, that\u2019s where the industry can take a tremendous hit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers delay vote on privacy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,13,360],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-technology-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114123"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}