TV licence changes for 'on demand' viewing etc (1 Viewer)

[hilldweller]

I thought that demanding money with menaces was a crime in this country?

HMCR have just fallen over laughing.

 

[DP+JAY]

On the Banda machine next to your old CRT telly by any chance?

I've still got one. Not next to the CRT telly though, that's in another room & still works perfectly.

 

[pyro]

I think withdrawing the implied rights of access would be counter productive, and simply make yourself highly visible to the TVLA.. Might just as well place a target around your neck.

The fact that the TVLA have a statutory obligation to enforce TV licensing law (S366 of the Communications Act 2003) suggests that they would have little difficulty in exercising their statutory duty of enforcement over "implied" (common law) rights if push ever came to shove:-

(1)If a justice of the peace, a sheriff in Scotland or a lay magistrate in Northern Ireland is satisfied by information on oath that there are reasonable grounds for believing—

(a)that an offence under section 363 has been or is being committed,
(b)that evidence of the commission of the offence is likely to be on premises specified in the information, or in a vehicle so specified, and
(c)that one or more of the conditions set out in subsection (3) is satisfied,

he may grant a warrant under this section.

And from their TVLA website:

You have no obligation to grant entry to an enquiry officer if you don’t wish to do so. If refused entry by the occupier, the enquiry officer will leave the property. If enquiry officers are refused access, then TV Licensing reserve the right to use other methods of detection.

Enquiry officers may apply for authorisation to use detection equipment if they are refused entry on to premises. TV Licensing may also apply to a magistrate (or sheriff in Scotland) for a search warrant. However, this is only done as a last resort and when a senior manager and a legal adviser considers that there is good reason to believe that an offence has been committed

The BBC are preparing to offer subscription access to a limited and internationally available version of the iPlayer through their BBC Worldwide subsidiary. I am told that it is likely to cost in the region of £5/month for overseas access to most iPlayer services. I suspect they will limit access to the services in normal commercial ways.

In the UK, I suspect that they naively plan to approach ISPs with random lists of IP addresses of those streaming their services via the internet and try to then compare the physical locations with licensed premises. If that is their plan, then they will have problems Alternatively they may simply enforce a sign up regime based on the TV licence/physical post code and only allow users from that location access based on cookies. It would be difficult to argue that it wasn't the householder who was watching online, inasmuch that it is the householder who is responsible for licensing at a physical street address, not the individual occupants.

Having advised clients on this issue from time to time, the infallible defence that it was a visitor to your household who is otherwise covered by their own TV licence usually ends any hassle from them. Good old "plausible deniability"

But, simple answer, if you don't want the hassle, use a decent VPN

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[Puddleduck]

they used to take your name when you bought any receiving equipment, do they still do that?

Yes, I bought online and had to acknowledge that the retailer would pass on my details to the licensing authorities. They got the address slightly wrong (but the postman still managed to deliver everything!) and the threatening letter arrived. Luckily it was easy to sort out.

 

[pyro]

With effect from 25th June 2013 the requirement for providing the name and address of anyone buying receiving equipment was rescinded, with the repeal of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967

From TLVA:

The Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1967 (as amended) has been repealed, meaning that from 25 June 2013 onwards you no longer need to send us customer name and address details when you sell or rent out TV equipment. This also means your business no longer has to keep sales records to comply with the law on TV Licensing. If you don’t need these records for anything else you can destroy them from 25 June.

Of course that doesn't mean a trader is necessarily up to date, neither does it mean that the likes of Maplin, Dixons, PC World etc aren't using this as an excuse or "needed for warranty" garbage to collect your details for mail shots. I usually just give them details of a local Chinese fish and chip emporium rather than argue

 

[Jim]

I think withdrawing the implied rights of access would be counter productive, and simply make yourself highly visible to the TVLA.. Might just as well place a target around your neck.

Actually, it works a treat. They don't bother you again.

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[pyro]

Actually, it works a treat. They don't bother you again.

Interesting. Sounds like they pick on the low hanging fruit and avoid the potentially knowledgeable challenges

Those bloody stupid letters they keep sending are an insult to the intelligence