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In late July last year, an UAV (or drone) aroused social concern after losing control and colliding into Taipei 101. The UAV violated the Civil Aviation Law by trespassing into restricted airport zones and exceeding the regulated height of 60 meters.

However, should an UAV show up close to your flat and happened to take a picture of you, all you can wish is that your startled expression doesn’t look too horrifying, because currently there are no laws in Taiwan regulating UAVs.

Let’s look at how other countries are regulating UAVs.

According to the recently amended aviation law, if you’re an UAV in Japan, you are only allowed to fly in the day. You are forbidden to carry anything, have to be at least 300 meters away from important facilities, including the congress, prime minister’s office and nuclear power plants, not to mention staying one square kilometer away from densely populated areas. Violators will be fined up to JP$ 500 thousand (approximately US$ 4,000) or sentenced to one year in prison.

Turning to the US.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s draft of UAV regulations, you are prohibited to fly away from your owner’s sight of view, should stay within a maximum height of 152 meters and have a curfew, which means no flying at night.

Last but not least, Taiwan.

Other than the restricted zones surrounding airports set by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the whole city is your amusement park. As long as the height does not exceed 122 meters, UAVs are regarded as common remote control aircrafts. It’s no big deal if prisons are photographed, and even if public safety and privacy are being violated, officials can’t do anything.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration is currently collecting ideas from all fields and plans to introduce the “UAV Management Act" by the end of 2016.

Being a few steps behind international standards, legislating the appropriate regulations will be up to the government’s wisdom.

Video produced by The News Lens Video Team
Translated by Wade Cheng
Edited by Olivia Yang