On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 21:21:27 +0100, Andy Wade
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

If you watch streaming video at home from an internet site, you don't
need a license.

Oh yes you do, since 1st April this year. The TV licence is no longer a
wireless telegraphy licence under the 1949 WT Act. It's now required by
regulations under the 2003 Communications Act:
http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/s...4/20040692.htm.


There was a long thread on this topic on cam.misc in July - see, for
example:
http://www.google.com/groups?&selm=4...ws .zen.co.uk.

There certainly was :-)

I think that you may be extrapolating more out of this than is in the
TV Licensing SI.

It has to be defined as a television program service within the
definitions given in the Communications Act.


"television programme service" means any of the following-
(a) a television broadcasting service;
(b) a television licensable content service;
(c) a digital television programme service;
(d) a restricted television service;

So unless the content that you watch falls under one of these
definitions, licensing would appear not to apply.

If you look at the Ofcom notes on Television Licensable Content
Services, they do not intend it to apply to internet streaming or
video on demand.

You can also get a reasonable idea of the situation from the BBC web
site. As far as I can find, the only thing that is live streamed is
the Parliament channel. The rest is clips of various lengths.
In fact they go out of their way to make sure that content is readily
available all over the planet by being their own ASP.

Obviously if you install a TV tuner and set up a streaming video
server and watch that on your PC, then you have created a licensable
TV, but this is not the same thing.

I may have missed something, but I can't find anything that says or
implies that TV licensing applies to content from public internet
sites where the content provider is not asking for payment and
controlling access.



..andy

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