Amazing Spider-Man 2: Paparazzi Using Spy Drones on Set?

The latest tweet from the set of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2...well, if we're being honest probably has little or nothing to do with the actual film itself. "Day 47. The paparazzi put it up and Spidey took it down," the director tweeted, along with the picture at left, depicting a small airborne drone, presumably equipped with a camera. And while it could be that this is a plot point in The Amazing Spider-Man 2--after all, the New York Police Department and other media organizations use drones now, so the notion of changing into and out of your costume on the roof, or jumping out your apartment window while wearing it, is pretty much out of the question for all intents and purposes. But the series of hashtags that followed it suggest that maybe the NYPD car in the background isn't a prop, but is there to take possession of a drone that the filmmakers found on set and downed to protect the film. "Look what we found," Webb says, along with "paparazzi drone" and "come and get it." That sounds suspiciously like he's baiting the folks who put it in the air over his set, not that it's a Spider-Man prop. Of course, he could be playing the audience--many of these tweets will likely yield nothing much in the final analysis, so it would be interesting to see this one--which SEEMS unlikely to play into the film--go the other way and actually be part of the story. For now, though--if it's not part of the movie, then it's illegal. While the Federal Aviation Administration doesn't always enforce the laws, and people have been known to find loopholes around them, it's presently illegal to fly them in populated areas (a protection against weaponized drones in private hands, among other things). "In 2015, when the FAA is set to begin to relax its prohibition on use and integrate civilian use of drones, then I would think the first folks in the door would be media because there's such an obvious use," said Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington who testified at a recent Senate hearing.