Broadcast the Pod

I’m feeling a little bit dirty. For the second time in a week I’m writing a blog post praising Ofcom for doing something wonderfuly sensible. It just doesn’t seem right at all.

However I am going to praise them. The iTrip and its ilk are set to become legal in the UK for the first time. Until now they had been banned under the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949.

Since it first started coming to public attention in 2003 the whole being banned under a 60 year old law has been a bit of a laughing point for me. That’s the problem with laws about technology.

Technology changes very quickly, new practices and skills come in that let us do things that had never been thought possible before but are now easy. The iTrip is a prime example of this. It’s a very simple, small device that plugs into an iPod letting you broadcast the output of your iPod to a radio player.

Once upon a time, to broadcast an the FM band you would need one hell of a lot of expensive equipment and a lot of money. Now for a few quid you can do it on the move. But it doesn’t broadcast at a high enough power to really cause any inteference with any existing radio stations - so I don’t see what the problem was - and obviously neither did Ofcom.

People have been buying and using the iTrip in the UK for years so to be honest it wasn’t a brave move on the part of Ofcom - just a sensible one. In Jersey you’ve actually been able to go into shops on the high street and buy one including HMV.

Ofcom have also removed the need for a licence to operate a CB radio in the UK. Now I didn’t know you needed a licence at all to be honest. I used mine all the time as a teenager, big aerial on the roof and CB radio in the loft - oh well, this might start a resurgence of the original ‘long distance chat room’.

The ruling comes into force in December but will only apply to equipment carrying the CE mark that means it’s legal for sale within Europe. Basically versions of the iTrip that broadcast on the lowest possible power.

Which is a shame to be honest. I like the idea of being a bit mischevious with it. Like going into a shop playing a rent-a-sound local radio station, getting the iTrip to broadcast on a close frequency and then standing in the shop re-broadcasting a selection of alternatives tunes or a couple of top podcasts.

Next move for Ofcom or the government (whoever has responsibility) is to change the stupid law making criminals out of anyone in Britain transferring tracks from their CDs to an iPod. Lets get that removed and while you’re at it take the restriction off transferring DVDs to computer as well.

Blogosphere - there are links to other blogs talking about this exact same subject from random words throughout the post.

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