NOS.nl, 21 November 2014: 'Stupid drone movie was not allowed'

“The internet hit of the past few days, the video of the Utrecht Dom, may have a nasty ending for its maker, Jelte Keur. He faces a fine of 8,000 euros, reports RTV Utrecht.

Keur took the images with a drone. But to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle over buildings, you have to have a licence - and Keur did not have one.

The footage has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times on YouTube.

Perfect weather

"You can apply for an exemption, but that takes almost five weeks. And I can't tell that long in advance if I'm going to get this weather," the 32-year-old filmmaker tells RTV Utrecht. He waited 10 months for the perfect weather, and there it was last week.

Keur need not expect a fine from the municipality of Utrecht, which says they think it is beautiful footage. Any fine would come from the aviation police. But Keur has not yet had any contact with them at all. "He is getting ahead of himself," says a spokesperson. "We know about the existence of the video and what he is doing is indeed not allowed, but we have not decided anything about it yet."

If the case goes to the prosecution and they decide to make an official report, a settlement proposal is likely to follow. "That does not have to be 8,000 euros at all either," the police said.

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Regulation

The drone industry is concerned about regulations in the Netherlands; we risk falling behind compared to the rest of Europe. In the big countries around us, the rules for flying a drone are more lenient.

"There are all kinds of developments going on at European level around this issue," Privacy First's Vincent Böhre said earlier. "It's just not progressing. I haven't seen any draft legislation come by yet. It needs to be speeded up. The developments are going extremely fast and the risks are only increasing."

Efteling

An 18-year-old Dutch filmmaker got into trouble when he had filmed the Python at the Efteling with his drone. According to the theme park, the boy had endangered people by flying too close to rollercoasters. And he could not see the little plane the whole time - one of the requirements to be allowed to fly a drone."

Source: http://nos.nl/op3/artikel/2004861-dom-filmpje-met-drone-mocht-niet.html, 21 November 2014.