I see this is your first post so Welcome. I have to ask you if the law said this is a no fly zone why would you need a craft that can break that law?
Hello i introduced myself in the intro section, as any forums, thanks for welcoming me. About your question: If the law says "this is a no fly zone", i won't fly because 1) i always check where i am flying 2) i do not want to brake the laws. An rc craft cannot brake the law, only it's pilot can (unless the aircraft is in auto flight, but still, there will always be a human responsible for this, the one who thrown the craft or on an extrem end the manufacturer)... Period. If a manufacturer says "this is a no fly zone", i won't fly because the manufacturer has desactivated my rc model (dji for example), not because the zone is effectively an NFZ... These are totally different approaches.
On the first one, the manufacturer does not interfere with the pilot and laws, and does not replace the local rules and policies, the pilot is then considered as an adult fully responsible for his acts. On the second approach, it is exactly the contrary, the manufacturer acts as the local police officer, even if this is not legal or fair, and the user/customer/pilot is simply considered as a feckless little kid.
For example i leave near Charles de Gaulle airport, we have an official rc field a few miles away. Not a single (stock NFZed) dji product can fly there, even if the terrain is officially an authorized rc fly zone since 1982. You can then see in such circumstances how paining a locked proprietary geofencing can be. On another hand, i do not believe such embedded fences can stop any serious thieves from doing something bad (see russian hacks about dji nfz, prooving dji's engineering flaws and how easy it is to jailbrake).
The problem is that quadcopter flying has become cheap and easy for anybody, thanks to stabilization technologies and industrial electronic mass production. A new and ever growing population (which is good for our hobby), in no way serious rc hobbyists for the vast majority, jumped on these "toys" without any skills nor education in flying rules and behaviors. It is much like these crazy scooter driving all over our streets nowadays, they drive very dangerously because they never had to pass any exam to drive a bike, and they spread a wrong image of ALL the bikers in the peoples mind. Guess what, 2 wheels accidents statistics shows here 80% scooters down, for 20% "standard" bikes, yikes!
I think a licence to fly with proper training would be way more efficient than a virtual fence that can be easily broken, volunteerly or not, and for which people do not think anymore, guessing they are "100% protected" by such backup...
Now talking about these new automated flying drones that we see everywhere, even in a 4 years old kids hands or grandma's living room on sundays, i can understand a manufacturer wants to cover his bum if the craft gets crazy by itself, and then implement a geofencing system (as a kind of failsafe), but PLEASE! in automatic flight mode only. Running a geofencing without a pilot override when flown manually simply means the pilot is not responsible when piloting the drone! Do you honestly believe this is safer? (Well, i think this is sometimes true when we see some idiots making stupid and dangerous videos with their drone on youtube...)
Conclusion: I consider preventing better than repressing, maybe i am a dreamer.
My point of view of course.
