BBC and new internet dectection vans

Cornucopia

VisionMan wrote: »

Or just poor journalism.

Hmmm... It came from somewhere.

The BBC is now officially backing away from it. (Saying that although they will be policing illegal access to iPlayer, it won't involve private Wifi signals).

VisionMan

Cornucopia wrote: »

Hmmm... It came from somewhere.

The BBC is now officially backing away from it. (Saying that although they will be policing illegal access to iPlayer, it won't involve private Wifi signals).

Oh I wasn't digging you out (far from it). You merely reacted to a piece of 'journalism' from the Telegraph. So your post was more than understandable.

If you ever see any further deeply investigated, insightful and sensationalist articles from either the Telegraph or the Guardian, discount them. As they are usually a crock of s***.

Cornucopia

Part of the "TVL squad" of companies the BBC has chosen to bring in is a group of PR agencies. No doubt one of them thought up this jolly jape.

I'm not a great fan of PR people.

VisionMan

Cornucopia wrote: »

Part of the "TVL squad" of companies the BBC has chosen to bring in is a group of PR agencies. No doubt one of them thought up this jolly jape.

I'm not a great fan of PR people.

Neither am I.

You know, one month before it launched, for two years, both the Telegraph and the Guardian went on a sustained anti-YouView attack that it was the worst idea ever that was doomed to failure. And in every article declared its death. Over and over.

It should be stated at this point they both received £10m in Ad revenue from SKY and zero from YouView.

For once every two months every two months they declared YouView was a platform about to die, and in every article declared its death. Over and over. And they kept that up for two years.

After that two year period of sustained misinformation, YouView had 2m users and became a severe market disruptor to the Freeview market. Then they shut up, completely. After 3 years it had 3 and now, today, 4m.

The papers don't half talk some ****.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Cornucopia wrote: »

You cannot be arrested or imprisoned for TV Licence evasion.

You go to prison when you refuse to pay the fine (and/or back licence fees).

kingrulzuk was saying "Who cares still not going to pay" so I was assuming he would remain true to his word and go the whole hog!

Cornucopia

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

You go to prison when you refuse to pay ... back licence fees).

No.

There is no authority for Courts in England, Wales and NI to make an order for "back Licence fees". In Scotland, there is no provision for such fees within the decriminalised process, which is even more restricted in the outcomes it has at its disposal.

Even with non-payment of fines, prison is not automatic, and only a small proportion of people who do not pay their (Licence Evasion) fines are sent to prison each year, typically for 7-14 days. Once they have been to prison, this discharges the fine. It's all a bit Victorian, especially if the reason for non-payment is poverty, but that's the system.

I appreciate that some people see Licence Evasion as a serious crime with serious detection capabilities and serious penalties, however the truth is much more nuanced than that. Whilst we may not applaud people breaking the Law, the reality is that (a) it happens all the time and (b) there is a balance to be had between the seriousness of the offence, the limitations of powers of investigation and the range of possible penalties.

In term of Licence evasion, a knowledgable person could probably go for an indefinite period without being caught, could probably defeat most of Capita's options for catching them, could probably take the tiny risk of a TVL Warrant, and ultimately is likely to be fined c. £150 if they are on a low income, even if Capita can get them in front of a Court (since they let off half the people they catch, this is by no means certain).

That's not to condone such behaviour, but simply to make the observation that amongst my objections to the TVL process is that it is impotent against knowledgable evaders. It's just one of the various ways in which it brings the Law into disrepute.

kingrulzuk

I don't pay TV Tax and when they did come to my flat last year all I said is I DONT SPEAK ENGLISH and got away with it

waterman3

Hi, I have a couple of questions, hopefully someone can help.

Presumably it's ok to download or stream iplayer on your phone at a friend or relative's house (not on your home wifi).

I have a Chromecast and Now TV box (both of which have BBC iplayer). Does the enforcement guy just have to take my word that I only watch ITV player, All 4 and 5 On Demand and only on catch up, not live.

On YouTube Sky News has a channel and you can watch Sky News live. Is that considered watching live tv, even though it's on YouTube?

On the YouTube homepage it has highlights of the Olympics from the BBC. Can I watch this or is that considered watching BBC TV, even though it's on YouTube.

anotheruser

We should, as a community, promote the knowledge of this website:

http://www.bbctvlicence.com/index.htm

Saw it years ago and glad it's still going. Rather interesting, considering the time they're wasting with the same old letters, same old "we're investigating". Not to mention the "we're setting a court date" - where it goes back to the beginning again.

Cornucopia

waterman3 wrote: »

Hi, I have a couple of questions, hopefully someone can help.

Presumably it's ok to download or stream iplayer on your phone at a friend or relative's house (not on your home wifi).

If your friend/relative has a TV Licence, you are free to use iPlayer. My take on the rules is that you can also download using iPlayer in a Licensed location, and watch it later from anywhere.

I have a Chromecast and Now TV box (both of which have BBC iplayer). Does the enforcement guy just have to take my word that I only watch ITV player, All 4 and 5 On Demand and only on catch up, not live.

You do not have to speak with the "enforcement guy" at all (really they are just Salespeople). They have no legal authority to examine computing equipment, such as your PC or Router, so I would not let them do that. There would be nothing useful they could get from examining your Chromecast or Now TV box.

Personally, I will be blocking iPlayer on my Router (the Live content is already blocked). I have tried a couple of times to come up with a blocking URL (for Youview) that is more specific than "bbc.co.uk", but haven't managed it. "bbc.co.uk" works, though.

On YouTube Sky News has a channel and you can watch Sky News live. Is that considered watching live tv, even though it's on YouTube?

Yes.

You could conceivably pause it for, say, 10 minutes, and then watch.

On the YouTube homepage it has highlights of the Olympics from the BBC. Can I watch this or is that considered watching BBC TV, even though it's on YouTube.

I haven't seen the detail of the new rules, but I doubt that on-demand content on Youtube would be covered, irrespective of who placed it on there. The BBC content you refer to is on-demand.

Here's some more BBC content you can watch without a Licence (and will, I think, still be able to)...

237 Episodes of Top Gear
https://www.youtube.com/show/topgear

138 Clips from Mock the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WL5So0L8m8&list=PL8BEA19E378EF870B