Commercial Usage - What is and What isn't

[muskegg]

Hey guys,

I'm in Canada and I've recently seen some info from Transport Canada, our equivalent of the FAA in Canada, stating that posting drones videos and pictures to social networks is not recreational usage because you could get indirect benefit from you flying the drones.

What do you think of that? Is that a valid argument? Do you think it would hold in court was it brought there? Any Canadians had issues with that kind of things before?

I'm curious to find out if I'm gonna get any trouble from me being an enthusiast who likes posting things to Instagram for fun's sake.

 

[NyJosh]

The only thing I've heard in the U.S. that's at all similar is posting drone videos to a monetized YouTube channel because you are making money from ads that play on the videos so that could "technically" be considered commercial use. Otherwise, I can't see how anyone can interpret posting to FaceBook / Instagram / Twitter where there is no monetization as commercial.

 

[Rocket]

I don’t know about Canada but here in the U.K. It’s commercial if it generates an income or you sell images or footage that you have recorded.

Other than that it’s recreational.

 

[Frogbmth]

In the U.K. it is commercial if you get income from the social network. But the law here does not mean it is only you that had to make money for commercial gain, if anybody makes gain from your content then you are doing it for commercial use. So for example, you make a photo of somebodies house that then a few years later is used in a brochure to sell the property. Your photo is now being used for commercial gain, and you are a commercial operator without even realising it.
So the argument may be that somebody is profiting from your content even if it is not you.
In the end though what matters is what you are likely to be prosecuted for rather than technicalities of the law in each county. Are they really going to prosecute somebody for posting something on Facebook instead of catching real criminals?

 

[suprPHREAK]

If you can benefit any way, even indirectly, it could be considered commercial.

Example: you have a business that isn't drone related, but you shoot you post a drone video you made to that business YouTube channel. By drawing views, it might be considered advertising.

Truly, you must have some sort of personal financial gain to be called commercial. Otherwise, fly on. If in doubt, don't post drone stuff to the same YouTube/Instagram channel as anything business related.