British Telecommunications Act 1981

12 Exclusive privilege of the Corporation with respect to telecommunication

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Part, as from the appointed day, the Corporation shall have throughout the British Islands the exclusive privilege of running telecommunication systems, that is to say systems for the conveyance, through the agency of electric, magnetic, electro-magnetic, electrochemical or electro-mechanical energy, of—

(a) speech, music and other sounds;

(b) visual images;

(c) signals serving for the impartation (whether as between persons and persons, things and things or persons and things) of any matter otherwise than in the form of sound or visual images ; and

(d) signals serving for the actuation or control of machinery or apparatus.

(2) In the case of an infringement, in relation to a system not extending beyond the British Islands, of the privilege conferred by subsection (1), the person running the system (or, if different people run different parts of it, each of them) shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine,

and, in the case of an infringement, in relation to a system extending beyond those Islands, of that privilege, the person running the portion of the system within those Islands (or. if different people run different parts of it, each of them) shall be guilty of an offence and similarly liable.

(3) In any proceedings in respect of an offence under this section consisting in the running of a system in the case of which, at the time of the commission of the offence, different parts were run by different persons, it shall be a defence for the defendant to prove that a part of the system had been included without his knowledge and that, had it not been, the running of the system would not have constituted an infringement of die privilege conferred by subsection (1).

(4) References in this Act to services which, by virtue of the provisions of this Part, the Corporation has the exclusive privilege of providing are references to services the provision of which by a person other than the Corporation would necessarily infringe the privilege conferred by subsection (1); and for this purpose licences granted under section 15(1) otherwise than to all persons shall be disregarded.