PPL License Jurisdiction

[Gavin Johnston]

Hey first time poster here

So I'm looking to start up an online radio station in the UK featuring live DJs who will be playing some commercial music. I've been looking into the set up costs which are all relatively low, apart from the costs of a PPL license, which I'd rather avoid since I'm a poor student.

My question: If I was to stream my radio station from a server abroad and out of UK jurisdiction, do you think I can bypass PPL fees or will this bite me in the ass another way, since my DJs are over here?

Many Thanks

 

[Support]

Hi Gavin,

Welcome to the forums.

If you plan on playing copyrighted material which you do not have permission from the copyright owner then you should have a license, regardless of where physically the server itself is located you are still broadcasting from within the UK. And yes, this will most likely catch up with you one way or another to be honest if you tried to avoid it. Perhaps, as a suggestion, you and your DJ's could all chip in together to cover the fee to make it more affordable.

Hope that helps.

 

[General Lighting]

if its mainstream pop music you would still have to sign up to the copyright authorities in the country where the server is based, obey their compliance requirements and they also would have to have a reciprocal agreement with the UK to allow the music to be lawfully transmitted here.

Although the process is simpler and slightly cheaper elsewhere in Northern Europe the compliance rules are equally complex - to the point 90% of EDM mixes are non compliant because the DJ's/producers are playing more than 3 of their own tracks which isn't allowed by many copyright authorities but they are also sharing the mixes online so aren't going to report themselves )

I think (but am not 100% sure) there might be checks and balances done to stop people trying to "shop around" in the same way you cannot buy cigarettes and booze online in other EU nations where where tax is cheaper and then have them posted to the UK - such as the person registering for copyright having to provide some ID from the country where they are doing so.

If you are going to try and "push the systems boundaries" I'd suggest making friends with some law students if you are in education (even if they are too young/inexperienced their profs might be able to help). OK its civil rather than criminal law so you can't get nicked as such but it might still lead to unwanted hassles on top of everything else you might have going on in life..

On that note perhaps you could get your school/college/university interested? They might even be able to provide some extra resources if you can show you're committed and willing to put in some effort of your own.

I'm assuming you could be at anything from 6th form age to your 20s at University). A lot of educational establishments try to encourage stuff like this nowadays (to be fair even in my high school days the music teachers would have liked to support me doing but the concepts and technology hadn't been invented yet!)