If you are planning to go to Sweden with a plan to take some aerial footages with a camera drone, better leave it at home as it has just been banned unless a permission has been given for surveillance purposes. The local drone hobbyists and even journalists are up in arms with the ruling that was just issued by the country’s Supreme Administrative Court.
According to Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s leading newspapers, the only permission for the use of camera of drones is for crime prevention or accidents, putting the use of camera drones in the country as the sole area for police or first responders. The paper also quotes the president of the UAS Sweden, Gustave Gerdes, the trade industry organization for unmanned aerial systems, that the ruling “will kill an entire industry in one stroke.”
Aftonbladet also mentions that it is a very strange ruling as it will also hit media companies in the conduct of their daily business in covering news events, especially events that would pose a dangers to their journalists or photojournalists such as harsh weather conditions or crime incidents. These situations would make a camera drone very useful for media organisations without exposing their people to dangers.
Furthermore, the paper notes that the ruling does not make sense in light of existing laws, as it is legal for people to take photos or videos in public places and thus, questions why it is wrong to use a quadcopter with a camera attached to it. At the DJI Forums, Swedish drone enthusiasts lament the court’s ruling, with people robbed of their hobby, and drone manufacturers having lost a market. The discussion thread also gives further background on the ruling as the Swedish members have made translations to English.
Aftonbladet says that this ruling may be hard to enforce, and it is up to County boards to report to the police of any camera drone sightings, though they may just make mistakes in case a drone in flight might not have a camera on board such as those RC planes. Drone enthusiasts may just ignore the ruling, but for media companies doing their jobs, the ruling poses a big challenge.
It is a wonder then for a progressive country like Sweden that a ruling such as this can happen. An open society allows for a free press and nowadays, free press nowadays will need tools such as camera drones to bring the news as it happens.
And for airsoft? Expect no aerial footages of airsoft events in Sweden for now.