[Hugh R]

Paul and I have had extensive talks about this, over the last three plus years, including a lunch with one of our top attorneys a few months ago (duh, like I don't leverage my contacts). The issue has been the legality of using them. We use them in Canada and the UK extensively. But they have been "technically" illegal for commercial use in the USA. Paul provided us with a very elegant technical exemption which our top attorneys declined to use. Not that the exemption circumvented the law, but from a Disney image perspective we declined to use. The exemption that Paul suggested was solidly legal, but our attorneys considered it and also had to consider how it would present itself with the Disney "Image". We didn't want to be seen as "weaseling" around the FAA rulings banning them.

If you didn't see it a few weeks ago, Disney filed several patent applications to use micro-drones over their theme parks for public display purposes. Some very cool stuff on using them as a sort of artificial screen in the sky for imaging.

We, through the Motion Picture and Television Association (MPAA), have been pushing this for years. It's not just our issue, but the entire industry.

Do some production companies use them now in the USA ? Absolutely. I've even seen a few of our own production companies use them in the USA.