the FAA says that if you want to fly this device for fun keep it below 400 feet keep it with a line of sight don't fly it directly over people but they also say that the second you want to make a profit from flying this you want to derive some revenue from the operation of this device you need a pilot's license you need to know how to land a manned aircraft you need to comply with all kinds of notification requirements – air traffic control and other places and that's a distinction a commercial versus recreational distinction that's been embedded in law the distinction between commercial and recreational use is a historical anachronism but it's one that doesn't make a lot of sense I mean the FAA previously ignored recreational users now they have to create a new set of regulations so let's leave the recreational users alone Congress put that into Section 336 of the FAA modernization Reform Act there's a bunch of law and policy behind why there's a distinction between recreational and commercial operators I don't know that makes a lot of sense though and the reason for that is if a camera crew goes out and decides to start filming over a crowd of people those commercial operators probably have a better incentive to be safe than the person who opened it up out of the box and just started flying and so that distinction doesn't necessarily make that much sense but then again you'll have the regular recreational operator who themselves might be really responsible and is it going to take risks because there's some profit motive behind taking risks and getting the epic shot so maybe that person is more responsible I think there's no real way to say that a recreational or commercial operator is more responsible from a safety perspective in a blanket way right we have to really make that determination by looking at what are the things that you're doing and are the things that you're doing safe or unsafe instead of trying to make a distinction based on whether someone's making money that doesn't make a lot of sense and I think that's a reform that we need in the law let's look at what people are doing rather than look at whether or not they're making money