Re: TV licensing legality of a SlingBox ??

[Steve Cuthbertson <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:44:14 +0100, you wrote:

I was extolling the virtues of a SlingBox to somebody yesterday ( a JP=20
who doesn't own a TV) as they would be interested in watching the World=20
Cup and they have a family who could provide the source.  They asked me=20
what the legality of such a solution would be with regard to TV=20
licensing.  I believe the TV license is applied to the building (or room=20
in rented cases) that the viewer is located - or is it perhaps where the=20
TV receiver is ...  Now PC World didn't ask me my address when I bought=20
the SlingBox so I'm guessing they are not obliged to inform TV Licensing=20
- but that doesn't make sense either as it does contain a FreeView TV=20
receiver.

So what does anyone think of the legality of receiving a streamed TV=20
program at an address that doesn't have a TV licence, if say it was=20
streamed from home (or in this case their sons home) ?    I'm guessing=20
it's not legal....and if so does that extend to not being legal to watch=20
a Slongbox that you own and located at your own home but viewed=20
elsewhere.    Do you think this person could buy (own) the Slingbox and=20
place it elsewhere and watch it at home ?

K
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And so I replied:


Courtesy of "The Register", a little information...

Employees watching World Cup matches on the internet without a TV licence
could for the first time land company directors in court as the TV
Licensin=
g
Authority extends its World Cup clampdown to broadband and internet usage.

The TV Licensing Authority, however, could find it hard to police the
extension to broadband use since it has no record of who has and who has
no=
t
bought a PC, nor how they use it.

Previously it was believed that only PCs with a broadcast card designed
specifically to pick up TV signals needed a licence. But ahead of the BBC's
streaming of live World Cup coverage, TV Licensing has said that it will
prosecute in cases where TV is watched on a PC regardless of how it is
received.

In theory, thousands of company directors could be fined because of the
Wor=
ld
Cup, since any workplace without a TV licence where matches are watched
via=
a
broadband connection is now liable for prosecution.

"Our policy would be to prosecute the representative within the
company who
is responsible =96 for example a director, manager, secretary or other
simi=
lar
corporate officer =96 at the time the offence was committed," a TV
Licensin=
g
spokeswoman said.

The BBC's live streaming of games could be a trigger for prosecutions.
"We
make no distinction between those watching TV via PC-TV, broadband or any
other way. If you are watching TV at the same time as it is being broadcast
in the UK you need to be covered by a valid licence."

Only one licence per company premises is needed regardless of how many
peop=
le
there will watch TV, but any company without a licence could be in breach
without even knowing it, since desktop users could watch a match without
th=
e
company's knowledge.

The Licensing Authority operates by cross referencing equipment sales
again=
st
licence holders and chasing down those with equipment but no licence.
"We
have a database of more than 28m addresses, so our enquiry officers know
exactly which unlicensed business premises to target," said a TV
Licensing
press release.

But retailers are only forced to send information about buyers of
televisio=
n
equipment. Retailers told OUT-LAW that no request had yet been received for
information on purchases of computers, unless those computers are fitted
wi=
th
TV cards.

"If a PC isn't sold with a PC-TV card then we wouldn't report
it," a
spokeswoman for Comet said in a view informally confirmed at another major
electronics retailer. "There is no requirement to do so. If TV
Licensing te=
ll
us they need that information from us we would have to comply. So far they
have not."

If no computer purchase information is included in TV Licensing's database,
that means it has no record of computer users from which to search for
licence breakers. TV Licensing also told OUT-LAW that it did not know what
proportion of UK businesses hold a TV licence.

The authority for insisting on a licence comes from the definition of TV
equipment in the Wireless Telegraph Act 1967, last amended by the
Communications Act 2003 and subsequent orders of the government related to
it.

The 2003 Act says:

"'Television receiver' means any apparatus of a description specified
in
regulations made by the Secretary of State setting out the descriptions of
apparatus that are to be television receivers for the purposes of this
Part=
."

In 2004, the Secretary of State ruled in the Television Licensing
Regulatio=
ns
that:

"'Television receiver' means any apparatus installed or used for the
purpos=
e
of receiving (whether by means of wireless telegraphy or otherwise) any
television programme service, whether or not it is installed or used for
an=
y
other purpose."

The law is almost certain to include the Television Licensing Authority's
n=
ew
definition. "It seems pretty clear that the definition is drawn so
widely
that it looks as though a PC would be a television apparatus which under
th=
e
Act needs to be licensed," said Kim Walker, media and technology
partner wi=
th
Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.

Businesses caught watching TV without a valid licence risk a fine of up to
=A31,000 plus court costs.

Copyright =A9 2006, OUT-LAW.com

OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons.

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I reckon that makes using slingboxes and equivalent gadgets in premises
tha=
t
don't have a valid TV licence against the law, and as for streaming across
WiFi on open access networks - would every laptop / PC need a licence
individually?

Steve "they'll get you one way or another, you betcha!" @ home
(with a vali=
d
licence, honest rozza!)
=0D