Crazy Consumer Electronics World: Where Amazon is going, it will still need roads, says FAA

Word back in March was that the skies were getting friendlier for Amazon's proposed delivery drones, but the Federal Aviation Agency has just shot that idea down.

A federal judge for the US National Transportation Safety Board had ruled that the FAA actually has no authority to make laws regarding "model aircraft" like the ones Amazon wants to use - not without public input, at least - but the agency is fighting back.

In a filing published in the US government's Federal Register on June 23, the FAA said Amazon is still barred from unleashing its delivery drone army, regardless of what any judge has said.

And in the meantime the regulators are appealing that March ruling.

Closing a loophole

As has been pointed out before, the FAA has considered using drones and other "model aircraft" for commercial purposes illegal since at least 2007.

That includes "delivering of packages to people for a fee," which might seem to exclude delivering packages to Amazon Prime subscribers, who pay a membership fee but get packages shipped for free.

That loophole won't hold water, though, as a footnote in the FAA's June 23 filing notes that "if an individual offers free shipping in association with a purchase or other offer, FAA would construe the shipping to be in furtherance of a business purpose, and thus, the operation would not fall within the statutory requirement of recreation or hobby purpose."

Bummer for Amazon, but it's not like the online retailer is the only commercial entity affected by these regulations.

Those pesky drone stunt pilots

The FAA also singled out such acts as using drones to monitor crops, photojournalism using drones, using them to photograph commercial property, and professional model aircraft stunt-flying (seriously?) as against the law.

It's not like Amazon didn't see these troubles coming - "putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance the technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations," reads the Amazon Prime Air website - but the back-and-forth is at least interesting to watch.

Meanwhile we've asked Amazon for its official comment on the FAA's latest move, and we'll update here if we get a statement.