80 day waiting period • The irritation: “Ending up in the same queue as holiday pictures”
Photographers lose jobs when forced to wait to view drone footage.
The images must be approved by the Land Survey before publication and the waiting period is 80 days.
– The problem is that I end up in the same queue as Kjell-Åke with his holiday pictures from Vadstena monastery. I think that those who are professionals should have their own queue, says photographer Patrik Jansson.
Drone images are highly sought after by photographer Patrik Jansson’s customers. But even so, he is often forced to forgo that type of assignment. Namely, images taken from aircraft, which include drones, must receive distribution permission from the Land Survey before they are published. The goal is for applications to be handled within five days. But currently the waiting period is 80 days.
– It is clear that it affects. Should I go out and film a new boat model in the summer, then the leaves have fallen by the time I have permission to distribute those images. Then it’s too late. Then I can’t take them on, says Patrik Jansson.
Part of the total defense
The purpose of the law is to protect geographic information, among other things for defense reasons. When the Land Survey was commissioned by the government in 2016, approximately 700 cases were received. This year, they expect to bring in 23,000.
– We have done the best we could, but we lack the resources to be able to meet the need, says Anders Wike, functional manager for map and image confidentiality at the Land Survey.
What would you need?
– More resources somehow. We are a grant-funded operation. We have been asking for funding since 2019, but unfortunately it was not prioritized in the budget.
Almost half have lost assignments
The Swedish Association of Photographers has carried out a survey on distribution permits among its members. 96 percent answered that they were forced to wait at least a month for permission and 48 percent stated that they lost assignments because of the long waiting time. The association is now raising the issue together with the interest organization Företagarna.
– We will raise this issue in the simplification council that the government has appointed, this needs to be looked at. Then we want to create attention to the issue. Here we have legislation that was not intended for the situation we have now, which causes major problems, says Erik Östman, regulatory simplification expert at Företagarna.
No new funds from the government
But infrastructure minister Andreas Carlson writes in a comment that there are currently no extra funds allocated in the budget bill, even though the government is aware of the problems.
– The problem is that I end up in the same queue as Kjell-Åke with his holiday pictures from Vadstena monastery. I think that those who are professionals should have their own queue, says Patrik Jansson.