Do all drones do this now? Is this required by law for manufacturers to implement?

Drones over 250 grams or for any drone operated commercially under part 107 registration is required. But, its easy to just build your own or desolder the id chip if you dont want it.

It’s easy to build your own, but it’s impossible to build one to be as stable as a DJI one, or as cheaply. E.g. with an FPV drone hitting the lens would be much harder (but you could use spray instead of a stick to make it easier). Removing remote id ‘chip’ is plain impossible since it’s implemented by the same radio that does video link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_ID in the US (FAA) at least.

Had a friend who worked on designing systems to pick these signals up around airports

In 1950s UK every country kid had a catapult in their pocket. Maybe that is what we should do. Give the kids catapults and tell them not to use them on Flock cameras. That is usually effective at making kids so stuff

You mean a slingshot?

(Or a trebuchet?)

in the UK a catapult [catty] is a slingshot.

Omg is that where the name comes from. In my language it's a "kettie".

I was thinking the same thing, much cheaper than a paintball gun, and less conspicuous.

A well made catapult in the right hands with a good aim is deadly.