COMPUTERS NEED TV LICENSES?

utick

just looking on rte's website at the moment and you can actually watch rte on the web, does that mean you need a tv license for a computer?

Overheal

dont tempt them

entropi

If it has the ability to play movies or tv programmes then yes, legally you need one but they cannot enforce it as a computer is not officially designed to do those things, just have them as features.

AlmightyCushion

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/media/tv_licences

You do not require a television licence to watch television on your computer or mobile phone. However, you do require a licence if the computer is used together with any other apparatus to receive a signal.

I think that means that if it has a tv tuner card then it needs a tv lisense.

Moved from After Hours.

utick

well if ya can watch rte online and get away without paying a license, thats a nice little loophole. im not sure but i think the law says anything that can receive a radio signal needs a license, so just stay away from wireless and you may be fine

BaconZombie

IIRC you need one in the UK {don't konw about Ireland} if you have ANY device capable of receiving a TV signal, this includes Mobiles and Computers.

cormie

BOFH_139 wrote: »

IIRC you need one in the UK {don't konw about Ireland} if you have ANY device capable of receiving a TV signal, this includes Mobiles and Computers.

You need a TV tuner to receive a signal on a computer. If you're laptop/PC doesn't have one, and you don't have any other device capable of such in your house, then you don't need a license.

Cuddlesworth

cormie wrote: »

You need a TV tuner to receive a signal on a computer. If you're laptop/PC doesn't have one, and you don't have any other device capable of such in your house, then you don't need a license.

If your Tv doesn't have a AV tuner then you don't need a license either. Until you pick up one.

Run_to_da_hills

You can also include some of the Nokia N series phones that can stream TV, Your TV license inspector will have some fun trying to track down phone users that subscribe to these services

Krieg

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/media/tv_licences

I think that means that if it has a tv tuner card then it needs a tv lisense.

qft

I asked this before in the law forum
But I have little doubt that the "tv" licence will soon expand to include computers regardless of capabilities. Since its becoming more easy and common to watch stuff through the computer

AlmightyCushion

Doesn't the lisense cover a household? e.g. You can have two or more tvs but you still only pay the lisense fee once. If so then there isn't really a problem seeing as the vast majority of houses have tvs.

Run_to_da_hills

Krieg wrote: »

qft

I asked this before in the law forum
But I have little doubt that the "tv" licence will soon expand to include computers regardless of capabilities. Since its becoming more easy and common to watch stuff through the computer

There are many people who wouldn't bother having a TV (In cluding myself) but would look at news and documentary programmes streamed on line. I have no intention of getting a TV license if I don't have a TV.

uberwolf

The Minister responsible has expressly said that the requirement for a license will not extend to computers. As I recall, the rationale was so as not to hamper the uptake of technologies. Conveniently I can't find a reference for this, but it was in recent months.

10-10-20

My understanding of the law is that any device which is capable of receiving & decoding television signals over the conventional methods of cable, satellite or wireless, require a licence.

This covers computers which have a TV card installed.

The gap here is that this does not cover situations where the TV signal is broadcast through encapsulating packets - such as over a network. Hence, what uberwolf said - this will be tightened up later on. But, the device which decodes encapsulates and then broadcasts the signal, will require a licence.

The hole here is that in effect, the distribution of TV signals over a network, where a specific hardware device for decoding TV signals is not used, does not require a licence For example, if you are using a standard network card and a software application to decode the TV signal.

Clear..?

Overheal

they wont do you for streaming video. for one that would be silly and I'd beat a postman over the head and keep him in the back of my van a la Lock Stock.

Second your ISP is transmitting the signal, technically speaking, and you pay them good money to transmit it. Its not the domestic television signal.

decob

This was in todays business post about the tv license law

cormie

Jeez, just read that, what a joke! Funnily enough I'm in the clear. I've a projector and a laptop without a tuner. So, a BIG screen and no need for a license. But yet I've already had two letters from an post saying the inspector called and nobody answered (when I did, both times) and that if I'm in posession of a tv I'll be fined:rolleyes:

Cuddlesworth

decob wrote: »

This was in todays business post about the tv license law

At a guess I would say that this

A television set, without an aerial, satellite or cable connection or other means of receiving a TV signal, still requires a TV licence; it is the TV box, and not the TV connection, which invokes the licence.

is wide open to being appealed in court since it implies that tv's are responsible for the license and not the signal which is a farce. Nobody should be charged for a tv license is they are incapable of utilising what the license is for.

Alun

In Germany you're already required to have a TV licence to receive TV programming via Internet streaming whether you have a TV tuner card or not.