134. Drone Lawyer Q&A with Grant Guillot

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Grant Guillot, a drone lawyer practicing with Adams and Reese LLP in Louisiana, joins us this week for some legal Q&A. Here is the list of questions that we initially went through, and then there are a couple of bonus questions near the end from live attendees:

Intellectual Property Related Questions

1. When working with clients how important is it to have a contract that assigns a license for imagery versus assigning rights, and can you share some examples of typical licensing language for drone services contracts? - Steve Diddle
2. Is it possible / typical to have a contract or license that gives a client certain rights for a specified period of time or purpose and then have the rights revert back to the photographer / videographer / creator of the images/content? - Mark Allen
3. If working without a contract, can it be expected that both parties have full rights to freely use the captured materials? - Chris Anderson
4. When flying and capturing videos and pictures of a field, construction site, farming area or area in the woods, ie not taking videos of structures like buildings, are you able to use the footage without getting permission from the owner of the property? - Peter Matt

Non IP Related Questions

1. So, I pay for legal shield program which is pre-paid legal services. Is there such a program for drone work? One reason for having it was to hopefully protect me if I were to need an attorney for anything in life but the drone issues is an uncertain area for protection. - Ken Elrich
2. I mainly fly in urban or suburban environments. There are always non-subject people and properties in my shots. I haven't used waivers or permission requests so far.

A. Privacy: Do I always need to blur faces, license plates, addresses? Are there situations where I absolutely do need to? What are reasonable precautions to take to avoid violations of privacy? - John Brainerd

B. Rights/Waivers: If I'm shooting in public, do I ever owe someone the right to request I delete footage that they are included in, or of footage that includes imagery of a corporate entity's property, etc.? - John Brainerd

1. I'm interested in hearing some feedback on cases you've worked on that may seem obvious to some, but have caught drone pilots off guard with associated legal ramifications. In general terms, if you thought it was OK to do... you'd better think again and here's why. - Bob W
2. Is there access to the “tribunal” to argue a drone fine and it’s applicability to the situation under which it was given. Perhaps the situation was an accident and the operator was trying to correct it at the moment (say a brief link drop that briefly put the drone over people) operator fixed it and landed but then issued a ticket. - Nick Seemel
3. If using random music on my personal videos “was/is” ok would I then have to do something to my old posts if my YouTube channel gained some audience and could be argued to now be somehow commercial. Same question for flying without a Part 107 in the past, but now monetizing my channel. - Nick Seemel
4. I am a Colombian citizen with living in France with the equivalent of a green card. I want to pass the 107 test and I would love to have the opportunity to fly in America, I mean, commercially. The question goes like this: Can I get my 107 licence as a Colombian citizen? If yes, am I able to fly commercially in the US? What are my options? - Antonio Gonima
5. How do you see the laws changing in the future? Will we be able to fly drones indefinitely? Will there be further restrictions once Amazon starts using their drone service, or others? - Steve Martin
6. Do you have a recommendation for minimum aviation liability insurance? - Ryan Beston
7. How far do you think remote ID will go? I don’t have a problem with police officials the FAA knowing who I am and where I am at. I am however concerned about other people knowing. Also, how do you think they will address the issue of drones that do not have the capability of transmitting ID information. - Henry French

Where to find Grant:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• MarketScale: Drones in America
• Email: [email protected]

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