Red Hot Television Is Banned

In  a  debacle that mirrors the "Spycatcher" case of a  few  years 
ago,  Red  Hot Television's attempt at stopping  the  UK  Heritage 
Secretary's  proscription order coming into effect has failed.  It 
is  now illegal to purchase or sell subscriptions or decoders  for 
the channel in the UK.

Red Hot Television had hoped to get an injunction restraining  the 
Heritage Secretary, Peter Brooke, from proscribing the channel  in 
the  UK. The case in favour of Red Hot Television  was  convincing 
and perhaps as a result, the judges on the judicial review decided 
to refer the matter to the European Court.

To  those  of  us  who live in  democracies  with  actual  written 
constitutions,  the UK has always been somewhat of a mystery.  The 
law  is supposed to be, for the most part, common sense. Yet  here 
is  a  decision that effectively says that Red Hot  Television  is 
guilty until proven innocent. 

The  problem  is not that the channel is banned in the UK.  It  is 
that  the  UK court decided to refer the matter  to  the  European 
Court.  Apparently the points of law raised pertained  to  whether 
the  UK  Heritage Secretary, Peter Brooke, could legally  make  an 
order banning the channel under European law.

The argument against the UK government decision is more convincing 
and  it has been boosted in an illogical way. An  EC  commissioner 
has  said  that  it  is ok for the UK government  to  do  so.  The 
commissioner  involved  was Commissioner De Pinhero.  The  grounds 
cited  were  that the transmissions might be damaging  to  minors. 

Right,  I  know  what you are thinking.  The  Red  Hot  Television 
transmissions are scrambled and are on after midnight.  Apparently 
the  kids that de Pinhero and Brooke know are up at this time  and 
have their own decoders.

Historically,  the  EC  policy on satellite  television  has  been 
little  short of a comedy of errors. The last great  screw-up  was 
D2-MAC. The commissioner there was stupid enough to mention in  an 
interview  that he was taking advice from Philips and  Thomson  on 
the  subject. Well D2-MAC is presently not seen in the same  light 
by the EC. The European Court may well take a similar view of  the 
UK Government proscription order.

The  problem with the UK Government's position is that it  totally 
ignores reality. Perhaps in former times when society was  tightly 
controlled a proscription order would have an effect. The  avenues 
of  getting  equipment and information into a  country  are  wide. 
Unless  the UK Government gets the  Customs and Excise to  examine 
every  letter and parcel coming into the country then there is  no 
possible  way the ban can be enforced. The Grey Market  operations 
of the last few years are a testament to that.

There  is a flourishing Grey Market for subscriptions in  the  UK. 
The  standard  trade is a Sky Movies subscription  for  a  FilmNet 
subscription.  The Grey Market operator picks up a  commission  on 
the  deal. It is logical to expect that the subscriptions  to  Red 
Hot Television will be handled the same way.

There  are  legal penalties for those in the UK  who  handle  such 
operations.  Even  UK  controlled magazines  are  not  allowed  to 
publish  the schedules or subscription details for the  proscribed 
channel.

Luckily  in  Ireland,  Red Hot Television is  not  banned.  Though 
incidentally  a  bishop,  not the famous one, was  reported  in  a 
Dublin  newspaper  to  be calling for the channel  to  be  banned. 
Ireland is a prime location for such Grey Market operations due to 
the proximity. Of course it will be the Irish pirates who will run 
them. 

According  to  some  interpretations, the Black  Book  -  European 
Scrambling  Systems  3  may also be proscribable  as  it  contains 
circuits that can be used to descramble the channel.



SAVE But Soon Enigma

At present, scrambling system used by Red Hot Television is  SAVE. 
The  SAVE  system is rather primitive and can easily  be  defeated 
with  about  five  pounds worth of parts. Indeed  there  are  many 
circuit  designs  and descramblers floating around.  Old  BBC  and 
Premier descramblers are being modified.

Red  Hot Television have announced that they will change to  their 
more  secure  Enigma  system.  Initially it  was  hoped  that  the 
transition  would  begin in late March and would be  completed  by 
May.

There were a few problems in the encoder section that forced tests 
to be suspended for a few weeks. It now looks like the  changeover 
will not occur for some time.

The  system that Red Hot Television will upgrade to is a clone  of 
VideoCrypt.  This fact has sent shockwaves through  the  industry. 
Former lackeys of BSkyB and News Datacom in the press, are said to 
be re-evaluating their position. But then they couldn't tell  SAVE 
from  SATPAC  without a press release. I never believed  that  the 
system  was as secure as they made out. The fact that it could  be 
cloned has proven  the point.

The fact that Red Hot Television are to use a clone of  VideoCrypt 
has   obviously  jeopardised  the  position  of  VideoCrypt.   The 
proscription  legislation  refers specifically  to  decoders.  The 
existing  VideoCrypt  decoders  can  be  used,  with  a  Red   Hot 
Television card to descramble the channel. Does this not mean that 
the sale of VideoCrypt decoders is banned?

Certainly if the Enigma system goes into operation before the case 
reaches  the  European Court, the UK government will have  to,  by 
the   terms  of  their  legislation,  stop  people  from   selling 
VideoCrypt  decoders. After all it is the VideoCrypt decoder  that 
will be used to decode the channel. 

Will this mean that the manufacturers will be stopped? Amstrad and 
Pace  will  not  be pleased to hear that their IRD  sales  can  be 
stopped. BSkyB and the other users of the system would also suffer 
as   a  result.  VideoCrypt  is  the  de-facto  English   language 
scrambling system. Perhaps in their zeal to be seen to act, the UK 
government has managed to act in the wrong way.

It  would seem that the move to proscribe the channel was  a  knee 
jerk  reaction. The channel went largely unnoticed by  terrestrial 
television viewers. The fact that there was a court action against 
the channel, drew in some four thousand subscriptions in the space 
of  a  few  days. If anything, the  attention  has  increased  the 
audience.  The fact that it is now banned will serve  to  mushroom 
the viewer figures.