Watch TV Legally without a licence

DUTR

enigma368 wrote: »

I don't know what kind of kangeroo court you went to, but the law as it stands does NOT require you to own a TV license simply because you have a computer with broadband.

You do however need a license if you use the PC to watch live televesion, although right now it would be very difficult to prove you used a PC to do so.

And as others have said, watching recorded programmes via iplayer or otherwise does not require a license under current legislation, provided you did not record the programmes yourself.

That said, the law is clearly outdated.

It would be very easy to prove, you have to connect to an IP address where the live transmission is sourced.

enigma368

It would be very easy to prove, you have to connect to an IP address where the live transmission is sourced.

Sorry yeah, you are right, it would technically be fairly easy to do. However I believe logistically it would be quite difficult as it would require TV licensing to track down what ISP you subscribed to, then a warrant to gain access to ISP records and someone with the technical ability to trawl through logs to match the ip of the offender to the ip of a service that was providing live TV. Also it gets slightly tricker if the "offender" has a service provider that allocates IP addresses dynamically, rather than providing a static address. As you say, it's technically do-able but I just dont see TV licensing going to all that effort for a single prosecution.

Correct me if I'm wrong though.

caela_2

jamespir wrote: »

according to the police or the judge who had me locked up for ten days you have to have a licence if you have a computer and a broadband connection or a tv and a dvd player even if you dont watch you still need a license otherwose we could all just record tele and watch it later

If it is true you were imprisoned for not having a tv licence, although imprisonment is only a penalty if you refuse to pay the fine, then you should seek compensation for a wrongful accusation. If you did NOT watch live broadcast or record it and there is no proof to say you did, then you should not have been persecuted for not having a tv licence as you do not need one.
Please note, recording tlly and watching it later, as you suggested, does warrant a valid tv licence as you are recording live TV. However, watching an online broadcast after it's live broadcast does not require a tv licence.
As TV licensing even admit on their own website, it is illegal to use "TV receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they're being shown".

DUTR

enigma368 wrote: »

Sorry yeah, you are right, it would technically be fairly easy to do. However I believe logistically it would be quite difficult as it would require TV licensing to track down what ISP you subscribed to, then a warrant to gain access to ISP records and someone with the technical ability to trawl through logs to match the ip of the offender to the ip of a service that was providing live TV. Also it gets slightly tricker if the "offender" has a service provider that allocates IP addresses dynamically, rather than providing a static address. As you say, it's technically do-able but I just dont see TV licensing going to all that effort for a single prosecution.

Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Thankfully it's easier than you think, otherwise we would have less peaedo's being caught, eitherway all this effort to avoid the licence seems more effort than it's worth, prolly easier to work a scheme to raise the the 150 a yr or whatever they charge nowadays

caela_2

roddydogs wrote: »

Here we go again "I dont need a license as i dont wathc live TV" yeh, right we believe you.

I do not waste my time watching adverts and jeremy kyle all day I don't care what channel it's on, live tv is crap. I have 2 tvs, I do NOT WATCH either of them. You may think why do I have them in that case, well one is old and I am selling it and the other I use as a monitor hooked up to a media pc to watch dvd's, play games and watch catchup services or youtube.

Tv licence take the !!!!. They want you to pay per property, which is not fair. If you have paid, as a person, you should be allowed to watch tv anywhere you chose. Scammers.

caela_2

jamespir wrote: »

i have a tv and dvd palyer but no rf input or anything but they siad it wasnt prove that i couldnt watch tele

I think they have to prove you do watch it.... innocent until proven guilty perhaps?

samba

enigma368 wrote: »

Sorry yeah, you are right, it would technically be fairly easy to do. However I believe logistically it would be quite difficult as it would require TV licensing to track down what ISP you subscribed to, then a warrant to gain access to ISP records and someone with the technical ability to trawl through logs to match the ip of the offender to the ip of a service that was providing live TV. Also it gets slightly tricker if the "offender" has a service provider that allocates IP addresses dynamically, rather than providing a static address. As you say, it's technically do-able but I just dont see TV licensing going to all that effort for a single prosecution.

Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I would be very surprised if the police don't have procedures and software that already does all this for them. The net is not anonymous and hasn't been for a long time.

samba

Borrowed from another poster:
It is a criminal offence to watch 'live' television without a TV licence or to posses or control a device which you know or we reasonably believe could be used to watch 'live' TV without a TV licence.

I don't think this is ambiguous - if you watch catchup stuff on iplayer, then you posses a device which you know, and anyone would reasonably believe, COULD be used to watch live TV - you are only one click away from watching it live, so it wouldn't be hard to prove you COULD watch it live. There is no mention of proving whether you actually do or not. The licence is for the equipment, not for the action.

samba

caela wrote: »

I think they have to prove you do watch it.... innocent until proven guilty perhaps?

No they don't have to prove you do watch it - they only have to prove you COULD.

Meepster

samba wrote: »

No they don't have to prove you do watch it - they only have to prove you COULD.

No, they don't, otherwise everyone in the world would be locked up as the authorities would find it easy to prove you COULD commit murder.

Luckily for us, our legal system is set up so that there needs to be PROOF of an offence before you can be found guilty of it...