Have you been cought Wit no radio License?

[Twista500]

Well I Just Found Out you need some PPL Lisence To own a radio? Have you guys been cought? Should I try Broadcasting a Radio Without 1?

Edited by Thom (Forum Moderator): Thread moved from 'Designing & Development' to here as I feel more suited to this forum

[GoldenMerc]

Depends how big your radio gets, if its not getting much dont bother buying one

[Twista500]

Depends how big your radio gets, if its not getting much dont bother buying one

how much is big to you? like 50 listeners?

[GoldenMerc]

like 5000 listners

[Twista500]

like 5000 listners

do you think habbox has 1 ?

[Recursion]

do you think habbox has 1 ?

Habbox were caught without one iirc and they had to buy one or move their server location or something like that.

[GoldenMerc]

I think Habbox baught one for a year, then they never asked again?

[Richie]

Habbox doesn't have one. Any time i asked management they said "we had an excuse not to pay" and when i asked what was the excuse they wouldn't tell me. I reckon emails from PPLUK may be just getting ignored. I had my radio open for some time and got smacked with a hefty fine, my options were to close down the radio or be contacted by their lawyer with a court date.

[peteyt]

To broadcast online you need a PPL/PRS license - ones for like the singers, one's for the writers (and other things). Then if you went FM/Digital you'd need aseparateone via OFCOM on top of the other two (if you planned to be online as well).

There are lots of myths when it comes to licenses. For example I've heard people claim that non profitable sites don't need one, or you don't need one if your under a certain age. The truth is if you play any kind of music that is copyrighted e.g. in the charts, on cd's - artists have a label, then it is illegal to broadcast without licenses. Also if you buy a SHOUTcast server your only buying the server, you still need the licenses on top of that if you aim to stream copyrighted material.

Obviously if your playing unsigned stuff, your own stuff or stuff you've got permission to play then that's okay. Most small online radio stations, at least Habbo ones, don't have licenses. While the chances of getting caught are low, there's always the risk. It's why for my station I've always had licenses then If someone is interested in advertising with us I can proudly show them all the paperwork letting them know I'm 100 percent legal.

Also remember even if you have licenses you need to buy your music, downloading copyrighted stuff is still illegal. People download from programs that say 100 percent legal, not realising that while the software is legal, the files are not hosted by the software developers and are actually uploaded by the programs users. For example when installing LimeWire you used to have to tell the program you wouldn't use it to breach copyrights so that the developers couldn't get sued (although they did eventually).

[Twista500]

Habbox doesn't have one. Any time i asked management they said "we had an excuse not to pay" and when i asked what was the excuse they wouldn't tell me. I reckon emails from PPLUK may be just getting ignored. I had my radio open for some time and got smacked with a hefty fine, my options were to close down the radio or be contacted by their lawyer with a court date.

So You Had to pay a fine And close The Radio Or you can Just Close the Radio with no fine? How much was The Fine? And how muh was it?