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The fact remains that drones like this that can be bought off-the-shelf and flown by an untrained (and uncaring) member of the public are a new thing, as opposed to enthusiast model aircraft owned by much more committed people. As such there are definite threats they pose to society -- real danger on one side (bringing down a plane, causing a car crash, dropping on people from a great height) and genuine invasion of privacy on the other (spying on nude back-garden sunbathers, small vulnerable children, people in general), which are going to need some type of legal control to stop idiots abusing them. Of course this will add some restrictions to people who use them sensibly, but this is true of pretty much everything. The difficult bit is getting the tradeoff right between onerous restrictions on sensible users and controlling stupid ones, but there's no right answer here -- the howls of anguish at restrictions from freedom-loving drone fans will be drowned out by press (and society) outrage the first time a plane crashes and kills people -- maybe lots of them -- due to a drone strike. And I wouldn't mind betting that Heathrow is one of the most likely places in the world for this to happen first, given the huge numbers of houses under the flightpaths...