Disabling television mode

[get_iplayer at i.lucanops.net]

On Tue, 12 Jul 2016 20:38:02 +0100
Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> A further interesting point, suppose I am running iplayer on my tablet
> on a bus (I have a license so that is ok).  Is it illegal for someone
> in the next seat to watch it on my tablet if they don't have a
> license?
> 

Is it illegal for a person with no licence to watch a TV from a public
place if it just happens that a licensed TV is viewable from that
place? Like outside the ground floor of a house with no front garden,
from the pavement, and the windows are open.

Unless on that bus you are publicly making a performance of it (eg
overtly holding the tablet up for others), then the TV watching is
sort-of private. What makes a phone or tablet screen showing TV any less
private than if it was showing your email? Or a private video?

I guess I have to conclude so what if someone can see a TV in public? At
some point (ha!) it'll have to be acknowledged that technology is moving
on, and attempts at control that parallel those of the past have to be
given up on.

Otherwise it would have to be no using iplayer on mobile, when mobile,
in case an unlicensed person sees it. Or a phone owner can cover it with
a public performance licence (the things shops have to have if they want
to play the radio or music, and I think TV).

IMHO the licensing has gone the wrong way. I think the transistor did
in the radio-reception licence, the internet should have done in the
TVL. No idea how to fund the BBC, but that is why I could never be a
media lovie :)

Nick