Drone Enthusiasts Aren't Really Feeling the FAA's New Registration Fees

Failure to register one's drone can now result in fines as high as $27,500.

Image via Eugene Kim

For everyone who's struggled to find the perfect holiday gift after that batch of hoverboards they got for the whole fam promptly exploded, drones are the way to go. Unlike those so-called hoverboards, a drone doesn't have a misleading name and is actually a practical and boastfully futuristic machine. However, drone users were slapped with the law on Monday when the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Transportation Department finally agreed on a new policy regarding drone registration.

Private drone owners must register their respective crafts no later than Feb. 19, with the first month of registration costing a reasonable $0.00 before drone operators are on the hook for five bucks. In fact, this matter of five bucks is now a gigantic source of contention for those in opposition to the FAA's new rules.

"Given the agency’s stated goal that the registration process should serve primarily to educate [operators of small drones], we feel that process should be as inclusive as possible," Sarah Wolf, a senior manager for security and facilitation for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), tells Fortune. The NBAA served as part of the "registration task force," who reportedly suggested to the FAA and other agencies that the registration process remain free so as to encourage widespread adherence.

"Since February 2015, reports of potentially unsafe UAS operations have more than doubled," the FAA said in a press release, "and many of these reports indicated that the risk to manned aviation or people and property on the ground was immediate." Failure to register one’s drone can now result in a $27,500 fine, with criminal penalties as high as $250,000 and up to three years in prison. An estimated 1.6 million drones will be sold in 2015 alone, with the Daily Dot reporting that roughly half of those sales will happen in the fourth quarter of the year due to holiday madness.​

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