Hi,

By using get_iPlayer am I acting in any way that illegal? I suspect so - the BBC presumably has agreed a 30-day fee with the content owners (eg actors, musicians). By hanging on to programmes for longer I must be breaking my (implicit) contract with the BBC...

Thanks,
Andy

I can't offer you any legal advice. I can offer you opinion. My opinion is that get_iplayer serves a functionally equivalent role that a VCR or DVD/Freeview recorder.

It is not illegal (as far as I know) to record content live over any medium. My opinion is that there is no functional equivalent when recording time shifted content - the behaviour get_iplayer facilitates.

Nevertheless, get_iplayer still attempts to adhere to the BBC's TOS (something different from the 'Law'). It doesn't circumvent any encryption or DRM, it doesn't allow you to share content (you must take active measures to share it by another means), it prompts you to remove content after 30 days and can only offer you content that is currently available on the iPlayer site itself.

None of this constitutes legal advice, it's opinion, it might not help you if the suits come knocking, but I'm of the view it is absolutely not illegal.