BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

[steve2470]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/06/bbc_detector_van_wi_fi_iplayer/

The BBC's creepy detector vans will be dragged into the 21st century to sniff Brits' home Wi-Fi networks, claims the UK Daily Telegraph's Saturday splash.

From September 1, you'll need a telly licence if you stream catch-up or on-demand TV from the BBC's iPlayer service, regardless if you've got a television set or not – phone, computer, potato, whatever, you'll have to cough up.

In preparation for this, allegedly, the Beeb's heavies are going to drive vans around Blighty's streets with gear that will spy on people's wireless networks to make sure they're not streaming iPlayer without a licence. Assuming this is true, and another sign that Britain is nothing more than a parody dystopian state, how exactly is this going to work?

Well, there are a number of options. The most sane, and we use that term loosely, is: the BBC TV licensing enforcers – aka Capita Business Services – will park outside homes that aren't paying a telly tax and record packets transmitted on Wi-Fi frequencies. If these packets, even if they are encrypted as they should be with WPA2 or whatever, match the size and pattern of iPlayer video packets, then presumably you'll start getting angry letters demanding £145.50, doorsteppings and potentially prosecution and fines.

[CaptainTruth]

1. How can they tell where the video content originated from?

For example, are there metadata packets with intellectual property (copyright/publisher) info that aren't encrypted, so they can read them?

I ask because as a part-time video producer I could stream my own original content over my network to QC it on various devices & I shouldn't have to pay anyone anything to do that.

[Wilms]

2. They're only looking for iPlayer streams.

iPlayer is a BBC app.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_iPlayer

But I don't think it will work with a "potato" as stated in the OP linked article. (Maybe it's a British humor thing.)