TV Licence article Discussion

cw18 wrote: »

This evening I've had a dig into the 'guts' of my new router.
It has one place to enter keywords or domain names you want to block.
I told it to block anything with iplayer - but the app on my TV (which I can't delete) still works.
I then told it to block a.files.bbci.co.uk - but the app on my TV still works.
I then added bbci to the list - and the app still works


Any idea as to what I should be adding to the list?

When I was researching URLs for blocking, I found the iPlayer app to be extremely resilient, and it makes sense for it to be built that way.

Since you now get either the ID challenge or the Licence challenge, I gave up trying to find URLs, although I found that if wildcards were available then *bbc* knocked out pretty much everything.

The full list I got to in 2016 was this:-

ibl.api.bbci.co.uk
mybbc.files.bbci.co.uk
emp.bbci.co.uk
component.iplayer.api.bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Whilst its good practice to block iPlayer if you can, for those not technically minded, its not a requirement to block it to be licence free - just don't use iPlayer.

I think you're right to be cautious, but there are a number of different scenarios, each of which has different licensing requirements, and will be treated differently by TVL (at least according to their official policy documents).

- A visitor using their own phone or tablet on its own batteries will be covered by their own home Licence.

- A visitor using your TV without you being present is responsible (legally) for their own licence compliance. However, TVL policy is not to prosecute visitors (the "babysitter" rule).

- If you are present, presumably you would tell your guests that they must not use the TV to access iPlayer, etc.

The nature of it is that it's just too complicated to find and block the entire list of URLs to prevent access to iPlayer and the various sources of live streaming that someone might conceivably have access to. And, for example, if you don't have access to Sky Go, how can you be expected to find and block its URLs to prevent visitors accessing it? Also, what about live streams embedded within other, much bigger services (like Sky News on Youtube)?

I think it pays to be reasonably diligent and reasonably cautious where TVL are concerned, but I also think that to do this blocking properly is in the too hard category, and TVL ultimately have to respect that.

castle96 wrote: »

Sorry if been covered before...

When on sky TV I can look at Iplayer/Hub, etc with no sign in/email/passwords.

When using the smart function of the TV it requires me to sign in.
Obviously I don' t want to use my real email address (so they can trace me ?). Is it a once only sign in (? so I can use any old email address), or is it an 'each time' sign in (so I need to remember/write down)

thanks

Do you have a licence? If so, why would it matter?

If not, then I'm afraid you'll have to try it and see - this group is NOT here to encourage or support licence evasion.

You can use any email address you like but if you don't have a TV licence then you'd be breaking the law by watching anything on iplayer