13-07-2017, 10:27 AM
No, it is definitely illegal. The licence gave you permission to receive authorised broadcast transmissions from anywhere but the police, etc, transmissions were not authorised as broadcasting stations and to listen to them was, therefore, illegal, as you didn't have and couldn't get a licence to receive them.
Listening to pirate stations is similarly illegal because those transmissions aren't authorised for any purpose at all. I can't visualise the government of the day prosecuting everybody who listened to Radio Caroline, et al, though!
Even though the wireless licence has been abolished, the law, as defined by the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1948 still stands although possibly modified by later laws*.
As a junior schoolboy I walked past an empty police car one summer afternoon. The windows were open slightly and I could clearly hear the radio inside as a list of vehicle registration numbers was read out! I often wondered if I was committing an offence simply by hearing it!
* It is surprising how long some of these old acts of parliament still have authority when you would expect them to have been superseded years ago.
In the early 70s I was having a bit of a battle over early running buses - when the last bus, in particular, runs well early it can be very irritating! This was pre-internet of course, so I paid a visit to the local reference library to see what I could find out. The current act at that time was The Transport Act, 1970. Eventually I found this:
Conduct of passengers, drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles.
The minister may make regulation concerning the conduct of passengers, drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles.
Not quite what I'd hoped for but there was a reference to a useful footnote which said that regulations made under the Road Transport Act, 1934 (!) still stood as if they had been made under the new act. So, back to the bookshelves!
A search of the RTA 1934 revealed:
146. Conduct of drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles.
The minister may make regulation concerning the conduct of drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles when acting as such as defined by section one hundred and forty four of the act.
Sect. 144 is concerned only with licencing, so not much further forward except that this book also included all the Statutory Instruments and Regulation made under the various acts which led me to Statutory Instrument No. 619 of 1934. I went through the list which didn't really cover what I was looking for and, in any case, complaints under the act couldn't be made by anybody below the rank of police officer so, at that point, I gave up!
Listening to pirate stations is similarly illegal because those transmissions aren't authorised for any purpose at all. I can't visualise the government of the day prosecuting everybody who listened to Radio Caroline, et al, though!
Even though the wireless licence has been abolished, the law, as defined by the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1948 still stands although possibly modified by later laws*.
As a junior schoolboy I walked past an empty police car one summer afternoon. The windows were open slightly and I could clearly hear the radio inside as a list of vehicle registration numbers was read out! I often wondered if I was committing an offence simply by hearing it!
* It is surprising how long some of these old acts of parliament still have authority when you would expect them to have been superseded years ago.
In the early 70s I was having a bit of a battle over early running buses - when the last bus, in particular, runs well early it can be very irritating! This was pre-internet of course, so I paid a visit to the local reference library to see what I could find out. The current act at that time was The Transport Act, 1970. Eventually I found this:
Conduct of passengers, drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles.
The minister may make regulation concerning the conduct of passengers, drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles.
Not quite what I'd hoped for but there was a reference to a useful footnote which said that regulations made under the Road Transport Act, 1934 (!) still stood as if they had been made under the new act. So, back to the bookshelves!
A search of the RTA 1934 revealed:
146. Conduct of drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles.
The minister may make regulation concerning the conduct of drivers and conductors on Public Service Vehicles when acting as such as defined by section one hundred and forty four of the act.
Sect. 144 is concerned only with licencing, so not much further forward except that this book also included all the Statutory Instruments and Regulation made under the various acts which led me to Statutory Instrument No. 619 of 1934. I went through the list which didn't really cover what I was looking for and, in any case, complaints under the act couldn't be made by anybody below the rank of police officer so, at that point, I gave up!
