130 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
130 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
Red Hot Television Is Banned
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In a debacle that mirrors the "Spycatcher" case of a few years
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ago, Red Hot Television's attempt at stopping the UK Heritage
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Secretary's proscription order coming into effect has failed. It
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is now illegal to purchase or sell subscriptions or decoders for
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the channel in the UK.
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Red Hot Television had hoped to get an injunction restraining the
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Heritage Secretary, Peter Brooke, from proscribing the channel in
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the UK. The case in favour of Red Hot Television was convincing
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and perhaps as a result, the judges on the judicial review decided
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to refer the matter to the European Court.
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To those of us who live in democracies with actual written
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constitutions, the UK has always been somewhat of a mystery. The
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law is supposed to be, for the most part, common sense. Yet here
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is a decision that effectively says that Red Hot Television is
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guilty until proven innocent.
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The problem is not that the channel is banned in the UK. It is
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that the UK court decided to refer the matter to the European
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Court. Apparently the points of law raised pertained to whether
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the UK Heritage Secretary, Peter Brooke, could legally make an
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order banning the channel under European law.
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The argument against the UK government decision is more convincing
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and it has been boosted in an illogical way. An EC commissioner
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has said that it is ok for the UK government to do so. The
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commissioner involved was Commissioner De Pinhero. The grounds
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cited were that the transmissions might be damaging to minors.
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Right, I know what you are thinking. The Red Hot Television
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transmissions are scrambled and are on after midnight. Apparently
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the kids that de Pinhero and Brooke know are up at this time and
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have their own decoders.
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Historically, the EC policy on satellite television has been
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little short of a comedy of errors. The last great screw-up was
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D2-MAC. The commissioner there was stupid enough to mention in an
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interview that he was taking advice from Philips and Thomson on
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the subject. Well D2-MAC is presently not seen in the same light
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by the EC. The European Court may well take a similar view of the
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UK Government proscription order.
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The problem with the UK Government's position is that it totally
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ignores reality. Perhaps in former times when society was tightly
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controlled a proscription order would have an effect. The avenues
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of getting equipment and information into a country are wide.
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Unless the UK Government gets the Customs and Excise to examine
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every letter and parcel coming into the country then there is no
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possible way the ban can be enforced. The Grey Market operations
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of the last few years are a testament to that.
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There is a flourishing Grey Market for subscriptions in the UK.
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The standard trade is a Sky Movies subscription for a FilmNet
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subscription. The Grey Market operator picks up a commission on
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the deal. It is logical to expect that the subscriptions to Red
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Hot Television will be handled the same way.
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There are legal penalties for those in the UK who handle such
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operations. Even UK controlled magazines are not allowed to
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publish the schedules or subscription details for the proscribed
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channel.
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Luckily in Ireland, Red Hot Television is not banned. Though
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incidentally a bishop, not the famous one, was reported in a
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Dublin newspaper to be calling for the channel to be banned.
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Ireland is a prime location for such Grey Market operations due to
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the proximity. Of course it will be the Irish pirates who will run
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them.
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According to some interpretations, the Black Book - European
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Scrambling Systems 3 may also be proscribable as it contains
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circuits that can be used to descramble the channel.
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SAVE But Soon Enigma
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At present, scrambling system used by Red Hot Television is SAVE.
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The SAVE system is rather primitive and can easily be defeated
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with about five pounds worth of parts. Indeed there are many
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circuit designs and descramblers floating around. Old BBC and
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Premier descramblers are being modified.
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Red Hot Television have announced that they will change to their
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more secure Enigma system. Initially it was hoped that the
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transition would begin in late March and would be completed by
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May.
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There were a few problems in the encoder section that forced tests
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to be suspended for a few weeks. It now looks like the changeover
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will not occur for some time.
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The system that Red Hot Television will upgrade to is a clone of
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VideoCrypt. This fact has sent shockwaves through the industry.
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Former lackeys of BSkyB and News Datacom in the press, are said to
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be re-evaluating their position. But then they couldn't tell SAVE
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from SATPAC without a press release. I never believed that the
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system was as secure as they made out. The fact that it could be
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cloned has proven the point.
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The fact that Red Hot Television are to use a clone of VideoCrypt
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has obviously jeopardised the position of VideoCrypt. The
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proscription legislation refers specifically to decoders. The
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existing VideoCrypt decoders can be used, with a Red Hot
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Television card to descramble the channel. Does this not mean that
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the sale of VideoCrypt decoders is banned?
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Certainly if the Enigma system goes into operation before the case
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reaches the European Court, the UK government will have to, by
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the terms of their legislation, stop people from selling
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VideoCrypt decoders. After all it is the VideoCrypt decoder that
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will be used to decode the channel.
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Will this mean that the manufacturers will be stopped? Amstrad and
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Pace will not be pleased to hear that their IRD sales can be
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stopped. BSkyB and the other users of the system would also suffer
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as a result. VideoCrypt is the de-facto English language
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scrambling system. Perhaps in their zeal to be seen to act, the UK
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government has managed to act in the wrong way.
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It would seem that the move to proscribe the channel was a knee
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jerk reaction. The channel went largely unnoticed by terrestrial
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television viewers. The fact that there was a court action against
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the channel, drew in some four thousand subscriptions in the space
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of a few days. If anything, the attention has increased the
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audience. The fact that it is now banned will serve to mushroom
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the viewer figures. |