Watching F1 on TV

I've been with expressVPN for years, very good. They also change their server IP's very often so the likes of iPlayer generally can't keep up so can't block them

All VPNs tended to be slow and flakey years ago, but most mainstream providers are really pretty decent now. I'm sure there is still some lag but not so much that I notice it.

I checked up on this before posting.

Installing and using a VPN is not illegal in the UK.

Circumventing IP location blocking is not illegal.

I can see nothing wrong, either ethically or morally, in doing so.

I wasn't intending to discuss the legality. I was asking if Pistonheads had changed their approach to this topic.

It's not stealing. That's not a grey area.

I've got a good friend who's a lawyer. She is rarely definitive; even though I've known her for years, any comment on legal matters is normally couched in terms of source, or 'it seems', but with VPNs, she's about as specific as she gets. With regards to accessing foreign TV stations, it is accessing free to air, so it isn't paid.

It's fair to say that legislation drags behind modern innovations, but it has always been that way. A company, concerned that they are losing their ability to take money from the public, will fund a political party, or even two, and encourage them to legislate away another freedom from those it represents. Until then, enjoy.

I would point out that this is nothing new. A neighbour had a mobile dish, back in the day, and could access free to air broadcasts from satellites on the continent. It was instructive but not particularly useful for viewing F1 when it was free to air in the UK.

PH can, of course, do what it wants, as long as it is not proscribed by law, and remove any posts they wish, although perhaps not for any reason. The same, however, goes for us. As a general – but not dependable – rule, if it is not banned, it is allowed.

So, PH doesn't mind if you do it one way but do mind when you do the same thing using a different method.

That makes sense.

It's not WHAT you do but the WAY that you do it.

Sounds like a song.

Is watching F1 live on TV in the UK OK outside of Sky or Now TV?

I'm paying Sky £33/month for sports, entertainment, documentaries, boxsets, HD.

I'm not so sure it is grey any more.

There was a challenge in civil courts over this. Memories fade, but to the best of my recollection, a pub turned its dish to the continent, and paid for access in that country, which was substantially lower than that in the UK. I think it was challenged on the grounds that something for sale in one part of the EU cannot be sold at a higher price in a different part (subject to minor cost implications). It seems that the pub - the action was funded by a collection of pubs - might have won, but there was an appeal threatened by Sky. Can't have governments telling them what they can and cannot do. It was Murdoch's job to tell governments.

That's a bit different as the pub probably broke the terms of the agreement they had with the overseas broadcaster (not that the broadcaster would care I wouldn't have thought). I can see why Sky wouldn't have wanted such a precedent set though!

In the case of someone using their dish to pick up a FTV foreign broadcast, there is no agreement that such a person has entered in to which they're breaking. They're not asking 'whoever' to transmit in the direction of their house are they? Until it's declared illegal to own a satellite dish and point it wherever you wish then I can't see what recourse a private homeowner could face. That's what I meant as a grey area - it can't be 100% right and proper that a person is receiving an F1 feed beyond the country that broadcast it and paid for the rights to do so. But there is nothing to be done about it that I can see..

+1. I've heard it works very well with an android T95 box as well.