Playboy TV fined £100,000

Playboy TV fined £100,000 over porn websites
by Ofcom after two of its porn websites offered explicit material without restricting under-18s from viewing it.

Read more: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a...layboy-tv-

The reason why Ofcom have become this all powerful monster in TV censorship is because no one ever challenges them, so they are able to do whatever they like to appease their paymasters at central government. A quango made up of people hell bent on showing that they are worth the money they get paid. Another quango on the same scale as Ofcom are Ofgem who oversees the power companies. They are supposed to look after the public's interest and to make sure we are treated with fairness and not be ripped of by these foreign energy moguls. So when they go to British Gas, e.on, NPOWER etc. They are given assurances that they will do what is right for the customer, and then the power companies do what they fucking want to. If they can do that with the wrath of the whole nation on their case. Then, just now and again why can't the TV companies defy the more ludicrous guidelines forced upon them? And just get on with what they are here for, to entertain us.

New channels are so wrapped up with the broadcasting explosion they dont see the need. Ofcom has ITV and Channel 4 by the balls, as public sector broadcasters it can refuse to renew their licences, impose punishing licence obligations or even make it easier for the competition. Some babe channel operators are happy with a cosy monopoly. There have been hints that Ofcom can be petty and vindictive if challenged. It can be done, but only if a broadcaster is wealthy enough, patient enough, and has a showstopper of a reason. Occasionally the BBC has challenged decisions (and part won). Sky has gone to court several times, mostly about making Sky channels available to competitors.

It can be done, but the will needs to be there.

Well eccles it looks like the will was there by Playboy, so i assume now that Playboy has won the appeal that Ofcom will have to hand back the £100,000, although i'm guessing with them appealing against the decision that they never actually handed over any cash .

(27-09-2013 11:27 )shylok Wrote:  Ofcom has today upheld an appeal by Playboy TV UK / Benelux Limited in relation to two decisions by the Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD) – which is responsible for regulating the editorial content of certain on-demand programmes services

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforce...mand-adult

(27-09-2013 15:17 )mr mystery Wrote:  I assume now that Playboy has won the appeal that Ofcom will have to hand back the £100,000, although i'm guessing with them appealing against the decision that they never actually handed over any cash .

Obviously they wouldn't have paid the fine. Nobody pays a fine that's subject to appeal.

what did u actually get to sdee?? gash?? pissing??

(27-09-2013 17:31 )cwpussylover Wrote:  what did u actually get to sdee?? gash?? pissing??

If only. Possibly, who knows.

Playboy was fined by ATVOD, the regulator that is semi independent of Ofcom and in charge of regulating streaming TV over the internet.

Their rules, as dictated by Ofcom (or an amazing coincidence) say children must be protected against streaming porn filth by a paywall, and that must use credit cards (age verified), not debit cards or other payment methods. Also providers of streaming TV must register with them.

It is perfectly legal to show hardcore porn, even stuff above R18 on UK websites, provided it is not child porn or extreme porn (corpses, torture, etc).

That means that penetration, ejaculation, anal, oral, fisting, pissing are all legal on UK websites. Provided there is a paywall.

(Not sure about scat, and dont really want to know. If Cameron gets his way anything above R18 will be banned, but thats not the law yet).

Not registering with ATVOD is an offence that can lead to a fine.
So is not having porn behind a paywall.
Having explicit samples outside the paywall is an offence.

One blowjob or glimpse of snatch is all it takes.

Playboy one case over content and was fined £100,000, so they promptly said they were going to take their operation outside the UK. In a second case ATVOD looked at their setup and said too much of it was still UK based to escape the rules. Playboy lost the first case but won the second one (about future regulation) on appeal.

Now ATVOD are claiming they were not provided with all the facts:
"In this case, it is unfortunate that ATVOD was not provided with all relevant information at the appropriate time - doing so ensures that unnecessary regulatory costs are avoided."
and
ATVOD noted: "The success of their appeal means that they can continue providing hardcore internet porn to UK consumers beyond the reach of British regulation."

Ah -
"The fines levied by ATVOD in January 2013 still stand, as the UK company was the provider of the services at the time of the breach."

The slightly odd thing is that Playboy appealed to ... Ofcom.
Don't be surprised if Ofcom are secretly fuming about this.
Digital Spy Artices
Advanced Television News site

Govt to block payments to foreign porn sites - Guardian

This case perfectly sums up the situation :

Ofcom (via ATVOD) fine a company for it's web content
That company promptly moves overseas beyond their reach

Great plan, let's run more businesses out of the country shall we? We already have google, starbucks, amazon etc basing themselves overseas to avoid paying taxes, now the websites are going as well.

It's also interesting that this ruling has come out just a couple of weeks after the plans were leaked to try to get the credit card companies to stop payments to websites that don't comply with Ofcom/ATVOD's rules. Did they see this ruling coming and draw up Plan B to cover it?

The UK accounts for 1% of web porn sites and those are legal by UK standards, with no child porn, snuff movies, incest, bestiality, etc, even if distasteful to some people.

The rest of the world provides the other 99% and much of that is completely unregulated. Most antiporn campaigners would rate RoW as much worse.

The impact of Government/Ofcom/ATVOD policies is to drive providers and customers abroad, outside regulation.

Own goal.

And what about all the free porn sites online? How are they monitoring, if minors visit their site? I never heard of them getting fined.