Major Close Down

Sharon Kimble boudiccas at skimble.plus.com
Wed Aug 6 03:23:58 PDT 2014


Frankie Higgs <frankiehiggs at gmail.com> writes:

> On Tue, 2014-08-05 at 16:09 +0100, Jonathan H wrote:
>> So, let me try and get this clear in my head...
>> 
>> Have you really just compared the deaths of millions of young men who
>> sacrificed their lives in two world wars, to the voluntary closure of
>> a site hosting stolen material?
>
> Don't pretend to be surprised by someone's saying "My ancestors didn't
> fight in WWn for this,"
> It's a very common piece of rhetoric, and in this case isn't entirely
> inappropriate.
>
> If, as many do, Chris views the second world war as having been fought
> to defend us from fascist values, then he is correct in arguing that
> they were fought to prevent this sort of close down.
>
> One important democratic freedom is the freedom to share culture and
> information. The introduction of copyright to the UK was intended to
> allow for easier censorship, and to prevent free culture. I'd recommend
> reading http://ip.cream.org for the background.
>
> What does genuinely continue to surprise me is that people continue to
> compare copyright violation to theft.
> I'm not even sure if we have the legal right to use iPlayer content in a
> way the BBC don't explicitly allow, despite obviously having the moral
> right, so I don't view what we use get_iplayer for as any different from
> downloading these files from a P2P site.
> (If there's anyone on the list who can explain our exact legal status,
> I'd be grateful)
>
I'm the writer of 'beeb', a script to help get programmes using
get-iplayer, available at my website.

This is a quote from the "beeb manual", page 17, which explains the
legal situation using information from the TV-licensings own web site. 

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
You do not need a UK TV licence to use ”get-iplayer” or ”beeb”. You only need a TV licence if
you are recording TV programmes as they are being shown on TV. This is from the TV licensing
website -

”The law states that you need to be covered by a TV Licence if you watch or record television
programmes, on any device, as they’re being shown on TV. This includes TVs, computers, mobile
phones, games consoles, digital boxes and Blu-ray/DVD/VHS recorders.

You don’t need a licence if you don’t use any of these devices to watch or record television pro-
grammes as they’re being shown on TV - for example, if you use your TV only to watch DVDs or
play video games, or you only watch catch up services like BBC iPlayer or 4oD.”

Source - http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/
how-to-tell-us-you-dont-watch-tv-top12
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I hope this helps
Sharon.
-- 
A taste of linux = http://www.sharons.org.uk
my git repo = https://bitbucket.org/boudiccas/dots
TGmeds = http://www.tgmeds.org.uk
Debian testing, fluxbox 1.3.5, emacs 24.3.92.1
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