good point!

Agree 200%!!! There is a lot about TV that seems like a monopoly! :bigbow:

I used Goldwingnut's video and photo service when we had our home built in 2020. I often refer to the photo's to show me what type of materials are used within the walls for plumbing or simply picture hanging purposes.
The video content is invaluable to see different stages of build-out. Archived arial snapshots of slab processes and plumbing can only be done once.
Don Wiley is an asset to the community, and for him to be pushed around and harmed financially is a disgrace. The Morse family should be ashamed of their actions. They know they have 'deeper legal pockets' than most around here, and will bankrupt people that attempt to fight them in court. As another poster stated, the federal airspace is free to fly in (certain airspace restrictions apply). Don, being a commercial licensed drone operator has ALWAYS adhered to those regulations and even mentions them during video editing. The the 'developer' absolutely hates bad word of mouth and social media posts, so GAME ON GOLIATH!

To the best of my knowledge "The Villages" is not a charitable organization but a business, the bottom line is always the bottom line. One cardinal rule of any business is Lower cost,, Not price , they have right to protect them selves, and will do so to protect those costs and profits . From what little I know of recording of conversations and video laws in Florida it seems to me that it is some what restrictive, I would like to hear from someone who went shopping for a new car and tried to record the discussion with the sales person, LOL as you would need approval of all parties

Developer not WANTING drones over their construction is just that. They can not want all day long.
According to an FAA approved drone airspace go/no go live website, to check the airspace for any flight restrictions, ALL OF TV IS IN CLEAR/NO RESTRICTIONS AIRSPACE. The ONLY NO GO ZONE is the large prison property, in its entirety. There are not even any temporary flight restrictions above ANY of TV. The law is the law, last I checked.
The developers have no legal say who can legally fly anywhere in TV. Construction or not. If they desire a temporary flight restriction, apply for one. Hopefully my 2 screenshots clearly show clean, legal airspace to fly ANYWHERE over TV. The small magenta dot near my blue dot is just a pin marker. Nothing more.

I had the opportunity to see Don's well reasoned and knowledgible response to the letter he received. In a nutshell, a lawyer (from CA) wrote to him on behalf of the owner and told him that he had no proper license and no legal right to do what he has been doing. It's Don's position, which he backed up with authority, that he does.
In my experience, some junior lawyer in the mailing firm was assigned the job of getting rid of Don's videos. He may have done a little research, but it's clear from his letter than he had no legal authority to cite to back him up. So he just used the threat of expensive legal costs to engage in what we now call lawfare. I thihk Don is going to fight and from what I can gather, he'll eventually win.

Agree
 

It’s kind of like the police don’t care for it if you film them, but the bottom line is you are protected under first amendment rights (as long as you don’t interfere with law enforcement applications).

There are also easements of land applications to law that The Villages won’t be able to clear.

We are here in the villiages right now and we’re meeting with a villages agent today to tour the street of dreams and most likely buying a new home while we’re down here. This is all taking place mostly due to all the you tube channels especially the drone footage buy gold wingnut and papa pineapple. The villiages marketing materiel is aweful. I can’t believe any company would fire employees that are doing a great job and willing to work for free. If they only knew how many houses these channels have sold for them….,,,,,,,

Can you please point out where in FAA Regulations, the FAA has the authority to allow or not allow, "taking video of private property" and using such vidoe, commercially?

The developer wants to protect its reputation, thereby protect the future values of your home. I think what is happening is misinformation is being put out by these drone video creators (except for maybe 1 or 2 that do get it right) and the developer receives phone calls all around the world (literally) with people wanting to confirm if X area” is opening in 3 months as the drone video states, when it’s really not scheduled to open for 6 months. The ones that don’t get it right are creating added work and diminishing reputations by being wrong. I’m sure there are also liability issues, along with showing assets at construction sites.

My suggestion is the developer needs to issue special permits for drones and limiting how many are out there. Then it can be controlled and managed.

Not sure where you may have read that, but the Developer has ZERO authority to ban anything in the airspace above their construction areas. Only the FAA can dictate how the federal airspace is used. The Developer CAN certainly prohibit drone pilots, and anyone else for that matter, from trespassing on their private property. This would prevent drone pilots from using Villages private property for takeoff and landings. But, once that drone is in the air, the Developer has no control over where it flies.

The Developer is overreacting their authority and trying to intimidate Don. His videos are very informative and he has always been supportive of the Villages. Nothing negative. I am not sure how this all came about???

Put yourself in their shoes
 

Bet you would feel differently if you were the one building houses and trying to market your product nationwide and some guys with no skin in the game were taking drone videos of product you don’t have ready for the market yet and posting it on you tube for their own profit.

Very much correct, the developer pretty much "owns" the local courts, HOWEVER they are scared of the Federal Courts, which is exactly where I would take this case. They'll lose in a heartbeat.

I think the real reason is sales are down and they don't want anyone to know how crappy they are building down there.

Excellent.