Re: Tv license question

Alex Heney wrote:
On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 10:01:56 +0100, johannes
<johs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Paladin wrote:

?Q wrote:

If you have a tv but do not have any channels tuned in nor any receiving
equipment set up.
It is soley used for playing dvds and games consoles do you require a Tv
License?
This is the only TV in the household. No sky NTL etc subscription either.




If you have any equipment capable of recieving TV then you need a license.


"If you have any equipment..." is by far too meaningless. You can have a TV
that is not tuned and not connected to an antenna. Then it is not capable of
receiving TV.

But to be on the safe side, you have to make it plain it can't be used as a
TV receiver.


Only if you so wish.

They will NOT win in court unless they can prove that you were
actually watching/recording it.

In theory, they could win if they caught you in the act of installing
it, but then they would have to prove that you were installing it for
the purpose of receiving programmes. Which would be difficult.

I have never quite understood why they bothered to put "install" in the regulations.

I find it difficult to believe that anyone has ever been prosecuted for it.

It would be quite difficult (OK, not very difficult) to install a tv system *without* receiving live broadcast at some time during the installation process. So anyone installing could, potentially, be charged with use - professional tv installers excepted.

You could, I suppose, claim that you weren't using the system for the purpose of receiving broadcast transmissions, but for the purpose of installing a system capable of receiving broadcast transmissions and that the actual reception was a side effect and not the reason.

I could take a 14" VGA monitor, run a wire from one of the pins of the 15D socket to a dustbin lid and notify TVL that I had installed a system for the purpose of receiving tv broadcasts. That would, presumably, be all that they would need to seek a conviction under the "install" clause, if I was unlicenced. I don't think that the law differentiates between crimes carried out in a technically unviable manner and those that could work...

It is almost worth trying, just to see the look on a TVL revenue protection officer's face, as I showed him my "tv".. Somehow I doubt, even with my "confession", that a prosecution would follow.



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Sue


















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