UK Bans iPod Gadget As Pirate Radio Enabler

from the silly-obsolete-laws dept

Thu, Jul 31st 2003 3:53pm — Mike Masnick

Almost everyone I know who owns an iPod also has an iTrip, which is a little device that will transmit whatever is playing on the iPod over a low frequency radio wave, so that you can tune into your iPod via your radio. Basically, it's a simple trick to let you listen to your iPod in the car. The iPod broadcasts to the radio, and you tune it at the bottom of the dial. Now, it turns out that anyone who uses one of those devices in the UK is apparently breaking the law by "broadcasting" a "pirate radio station". The fact that the broadcast range is (at most) 30 feet doesn't seem to matter. Who knew it was so easy to become a pirate broadcaster?

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4 Comments

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LittleW0lf, 31 Jul 2003 @ 6:05pm

Cool....
Another thing to bring with me when I dress up like a pirate and join friends (similarly dressed,) to watch a movie.

Harrr, there be pirates in the movie theater.

It will be amazing to see the faces on the ticket taker when us pirates come in blaring our iPods using iTrip to boom boxes on our sholders. Anyone have an mp3 version of A Pirates Life?

They would just look at us now as though we are overly enthusiastic about Pirates of the Carribean, even though we are watching movies like Matrix Reloaded, et. al..
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Doogie, 1 Aug 2003 @ 6:40am

UK radio laws
Same thing applies to devices like the 50mW transmitter from www.veronica.co.uk
Sometimes I really wonder about this country....!
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rax, 1 Aug 2003 @ 6:40am

Low power pirate station
This is over hype. People have used low power FM transmitters for years. People use them in their car if they can't hook a CD player up to their stock radio or want to share the tunes with a couple of friends while hanging out in a parking lot.
I don't know about British law, but in the US if the signal doesn't cross a certain threshold it's not considered to be in violation. This story seems like a stretch.
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Doogie, 1 Aug 2003 @ 3:35pm

Re: Low power pirate station
Unfortunately it is the truth.... Britain is really that uptight!
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