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Courts told to look down on licence dodgers with pay-TV subscriptions
If all goes to plan, the new BBC Charter will close the "iPlayer loophole" from January next year. That would mean anyone watching the broadcaster's content would require a TV licence, regardless of how they're accessing it -- more money for the BBC and, if you want to be cynical about it, more dodgers to catch. Coincidentally, the Sentencing Council has today proposed new sentencing guidelines for Magistrates' courts, one of which covers "TV licence payment evasion." In it, the courts are told to consider additional subscription television services a factor that increases offender culpability. Basically, don't pretend you can't pay the licence fee when you've got a Sky Q box under your TV, and don't try to claim you missed all the BBC channels listed on your TiVo EPG.
British young offenders who brag online could see tougher sentences
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales today proposed an expanded set of guidelines that courts would have to follow when sentencing young offenders aged 10 to 17. Importantly, for the first time, the instructions explicitly mention video, images and other details of the incident deliberately shared through social media and elsewhere online as an "aggravating factor," which could increase the seriousness of an offence and lead to tougher sentences.
