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I recall that in the UK (unlike in the rest of the world) we have a law forbidding the listening to of air traffic control, dating back a century, to the days of paranoia over spies!

What is this law, exactly? Is it illegal for a member of the public to listen to live ATC in the UK? Are there any exceptions?

It seems like something of a grey area, but some sources claim that listening to a delayed feed (or historical recording) works around this law; is this true?

Danny Beckett
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    Not unlike the entire rest of the world though, Germany has similar brain-damaged laws. Might be more around. – falstro Apr 09 '14 at 06:20
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    In Indiana, it's illegal to bathe in the winter. You're not the only country with strange laws :) – TypeIA Apr 09 '14 at 13:06
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    Hmm, reminds me of laws prohibiting suicide. – Terry Jul 03 '14 at 04:03
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    @Terry: The law prohibiting suicide is quite sane if you believe suicide ought to be not done in the first place. It makes assisting somebody else committing suicide a prosecutable act. On the other hand, banning listening to ATC Guard is not sane as its intended purpose is to be heard by anybody in the area who might have to care. – Joshua Apr 25 '17 at 23:02
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    @Joshua My objection to the apparent UK ATC law and laws against suicide is that both are basically unenforceable in my opinion. That is what it was/is that causes the ATC law to remind me of suicide laws. I wasn't thinking of the sanity, whatever that may mean (perhaps morality?) of either. By the way, I am a supporter of assisted suicide (now legal in Oregon) . – Terry Apr 25 '17 at 23:45
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    Just guessing, but this sounds like something left over from WWII national security interests, I don't know if it is still on the books but at least as of 20yrs ago when I got several FCC certifications in the the US, it was illegal for a convicted criminal (felon) to own a public radio station. During WWII the US was afraid they might send spy information to Japan or Germany (or later Russia) and the law was never removed after the war! – jwzumwalt Aug 29 '18 at 11:02
  • @jwzumwalt you are correct, it’s a law left over from WWII. – Notts90 Dec 24 '18 at 23:36
  • Another bizarre UK law: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/18949/in-the-uk-whats-the-rationale-for-having-crown-copyright – JonathanReez May 25 '21 at 02:50

5 Answers5

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Yes, it is illegal.

The UK has some very strange ideas about Radio, which bear no resemblance to the reality of physics and how radio actually works. Foremost among those ideas is the idea that you are only legally allowed to listen to transmissions intended for "general reception":

The services that can be listened to under the definition of general reception are:

  • licensed broadcasting stations;
  • amateur and citizens' band radio transmissions; and
  • weather and navigation transmissions

Radio scanners should not be used to listen to any other radio services, including illegal radio stations (pirates) (by virtue of the fact that they are not licensed radio stations).

Aviation-band transmissions are not on Ofcom's list, so even though they are broadcast entirely "in the clear" and anyone with an appropriately tuned AM receiver could hear them you are legally prohibited from listening to them.

Providing feeds to LiveATC would also appear to be a violation, though it's not clear to me that listening to LiveATC streams would put the listener in violation of the law.

From the same Ofcom site:

… it is illegal to listen to anything other than general reception transmissions unless you are either a licensed user of the frequencies in question or have been specifically authorised to do so by a designated person.

and

… it is also illegal to tell a third party what has been heard in a transmission a person has listened to illegally.

So anyone providing UK aviation band transmissions to LiveATC may be in violation of both of those laws, but I'm not certain what that means for LiveATC listeners (that would be a question to ask Ofcom).

200_success
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voretaq7
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  • I doubt you'll find UK feed on LiveATC for this exact reason, but I'm also curious to know from a listener's perspective; I have seen one site with feeds, on a short delay. – Danny Beckett Apr 09 '14 at 06:10
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    @DannyBeckett There's a bit of a gray area in Ofcom's pronouncements on that page -- If an authorized person captures the radio traffic they might be allowed to disclose its contents (either verbally, in a transcript, or maybe as a recording). You'd need to find someone better versed in UK law than I to figure out that murky legal area though. – voretaq7 Apr 09 '14 at 06:16
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    The tens of thousands of people with airband receivers (which are freely sold in the UK...) at UK airshows would be quite surprised to hear they're all breaking the law, as would be the armed military police patrolling the premises. Of course it can very well be argued that ATC and aircraft transmitters ARE licensed (as without a license they would not be allowed to transmit in the UK). The last sentence of the statement is telling, seems to indicate that the restriction is only for pirate stations. – jwenting Apr 09 '14 at 06:46
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    @jwenting Just because the law surprises you (and is *RIDICULOUSLY* STUPID) doesn't mean it's not the law - We have a law in NYC that says you can't shoot rabbits from an elevated train line. The general position in the UK (and many other commonwealth countries, as I understand it) is that airband transmissions are not "general reception transmissions", which means it's a crime to listen to them unless you're an "authorised person". (The practice is the law is *RIDICULOUSLY* STUPID and enforcement is largely nonexistent, but that was the case for jaywalking in NYC for decades…) – voretaq7 Apr 09 '14 at 15:47
  • Is ATC a "navigational transmission"? – David Richerby Apr 09 '14 at 18:44
  • Just to throw a quick one in here: Ofcom is the regulator - there is an exact law this comes under, that would give you the necessary information. I seem to recall it comes under the Wiretapping Act, but I could be wrong. – Danny Beckett Apr 09 '14 at 19:55
  • @DannyBeckett I'm not well versed in UK law, but the page I linked to states that There are two criminal offences, under section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006, relating to unauthorised reception. -- there might be other applicable offenses though if you go looking, I assume your laws are as convoluted as ours :) – voretaq7 Apr 09 '14 at 19:57
  • That sounds like the one actually. – Danny Beckett Apr 09 '14 at 19:59
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    @voretaq7 true, but apparently even those tasked with enforcing the law then don't understand the law. And in my experience those enforcing laws are often overeager to be heavy handed, rather than letting things slip. Of course it's quite possible that there are exceptions in place to the law during specific events, but I've used my scanner at Heathrow and Gatwick freely within sight of the airport security police and they never bothered me (admittedly this was several years ago). – jwenting Apr 10 '14 at 06:31
  • Hrm -- does the UK ever broadcast voice transmissions over it's VORs? (similar to US HIWAS) – UnrecognizedFallingObject Jul 14 '16 at 01:13
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    "The UK has some very strange ideas about Radio, which bear no resemblance to the reality of physics and how radio actually works." Why should it have anything to do with physics? It is illegal for somebody to take my bicycle if I leave it unlocked in a public street, even though nothing physically prevents it. It is illegal for somebody to listen to ATC, even though nothing physically prevents it. Now, it's hard to argue that listening to ATC causes anybody any problems at all, whereas stealing bicycles clearly does, and that is why I find the law ridiculous. Nothing to do with physics. – David Richerby Feb 25 '17 at 23:02
  • @DavidRicherby To steal a bicycle you need to go out of your way to do something (get on the bike, push the pedals, steer). To listen to airband all you need to do is adjust any AM receiver to the appropriate frequency range - you have to actively limit receivers to prevent picking it up. A kid with a crystal radio kit (legal in the UK as far as I'm aware) could break this law entirely inadvertently just by moving the slider on their coil (unless they paint over the airband range on the coil). – voretaq7 Feb 27 '17 at 21:01
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    @voretaq7 Why does getting on a bike and riding it count as "going out of your way to do something" but switching on a radio and tuning it doesn't? Especially when your average consumer hi-fi radio can't even be tuned to the relevant frequencies. I completely agree that this law is ridiculous, but I don't think this is a compelling argument for why. (And, by the way, there's exactly zero chance of a prosecution being brought for inadvertently, momentarily listening to the frequencies, though it would be far preferable to not have to rely on "illegal but you'd never get prosecuted for it.") – David Richerby Feb 27 '17 at 22:16
  • @DavidRicherby I suppose it was a more relevant distinction back in the tube-radio days: Not sure about UK equipment but in the US those sets frequently tuned everything from shortwave up through VHF. I have a couple of Zenith sets that even have "Aviation" on the dial & work pretty well (they'll pull in transmissions better than my handheld receiver, largely due to the better antenna, though they suck down a lot of power to do the job). – voretaq7 Feb 28 '17 at 21:10
  • @jwenting is right. The law in this area may be ridiculous, but Ofcom are not to be messed with. They take the QRP approach to law enforcement: they try to make their tiny amount of power go a very long way. – Dan Aug 28 '18 at 22:53
  • Regarding "unless you are ... a licensed user", what is to stop a licensed user trom setting up a LiveATC feed? – StephenS Dec 24 '18 at 21:40
  • Regarding "which bear no resemblance to the reality of physics and how radio actually works" - most laws are kinda like that. Making stealing illegal bears no resemblance to the reality of physics and how stealing actually works. Making murder illegal bears no resemblance to the reality of physics and how murder actually works. And there's certainly no law of physics requiring your power to go through a meter. If they were laws of physics they wouldn't need to be actual laws. – user253751 Jul 19 '21 at 16:20
14

Yes it is illegal.

UK's OFCOM, the Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries write

Q. Isn't this all a bit heavy?

A. No. No-one likes their private or business conversations to be listened to. Parliament has passed these laws to protect the privacy of radio users

Obviously this appears pretty futile to many people, me included.

Practicality or enforceability of law is not an issue that prevents legislation. There are other laws that are more obviously justifiable but which relate to actions that are equally difficult to prevent.

RedGrittyBrick
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  • Link does not go to what you quoted. – Ross Presser May 28 '20 at 17:12
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    @RossPresser: OFCOM reorganised their website, I've changed the link to point to the Internet Archive's copy of that web-page. – RedGrittyBrick May 28 '20 at 18:17
  • Forbidding interception is part of ITU Constitution accepted by members: "take the necessary measures to prohibit [...] the unauthorized interception of radiocommunications not intended for the general use of the public" (art. 17, Secrecy). US forbids interception, but also allows a few interceptions explicitly: "It shall not be unlawful under this chapter [...] to intercept any radio communication which is transmitted [...] by any marine or aeronautical communications system". Other countries just forbid interception, no exceptions. – mins Jul 19 '21 at 13:23
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Strictly speaking it is against the law, the transmission is not intended for public reception (indicated by it falling outside of public broadcast frequencies) and you are not the intended recipient.

However you will find that in practice this is ignored on a personal basis.

i.e. yourself listening nobody has a problem with, if you were to then make what you hear available elsewhere whether via retransmission, recording or transcript I would expect a knock on the door from Ofcom

Jess--
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Basic legislation within the EU, specifies that your are allowed to listen to any type of information available on the electromagnetic spectrum. It is up to the users to protect said information by using encryption if so required. This is not to say that there is not some very restrictive legislation in place in some countries. They just hate the thought of their citizens getting informations of almost any kind. Ignore the law and take your complaints to the courts in Brussels. The local authorities will hate you for that, but you will probably win the case.

Danny Beckett
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user2079
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    Could you add a source for the first part of your answer? the second part also sounds as based on very little facts but rather on your personal ideas. – Federico Apr 09 '14 at 11:00
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    It's Article 19 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights : "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.". The equivalent ECHR article 10 has direct force of law in the EU and outranks UK law. It's a sad fact that some people want sources for such statements, basic human rights ought to be General Knowledge. – MSalters Jun 25 '14 at 22:40
  • It is true that EU law often trumps UK law. – Danny Beckett Jul 02 '14 at 21:55
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    It's illegal in Germany too, and people have actually been convicted, so I'm guessing they're able to work around that somehow. I think the issue is that you're not the intended recipient, so you're effectively "wiretapping" (without the wire). The article you quote seems to want to avoid people (governments) from blocking signals intended for you or general reception. Such as blocking Twitter when someone posts something bad about the president. – falstro Jul 03 '14 at 06:09
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    @MSalters: UDHR is not EU law, it is an (old) statement from the UN of the rights that we should all strive to promote. In any event, Article 19 is about having the right to receive information that was intended for you--not to receive all information irrespective of the intended recipient; even if it were, balances often need to be struck between various rights: e.g. the right (under Article 12) to protection from arbitrary interference with privacy and correspondence. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union would hold more weight, but the UK opted out. – eggyal Aug 05 '14 at 14:24
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    @MSalters: Thus one might instead look towards the European Convention on Human Rights, the rights under which must not be interfered with by public authorities in the UK (owing to the Human Rights Act 1998). However, the (similar) right to freedom of expression under that convention is qualified: the right can justifiably be restricted for a whole host of reasons. – eggyal Aug 05 '14 at 14:27
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    I would home that eavesdropping is not considered a human right just because it might be easy, or even trivial, in some contexts. – President James K. Polk Dec 24 '18 at 14:39
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Contact between ATC and Aircraft is purely for Navigation Transmissions and therefore legal. I've never heard them having a general chat other than the odd Merry Christmas Etc.

In my opinion it's general receive.

If it's not illegal to listen to then it's not illegal to pass info on in whatever form, ie web feed.

I've asked ofcom and if I get a reply will post here.

Dave

Dave Edge
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    In your opinion (and everyone else's) it's general receive. However it is not legal for the general public to listen to. I've seen online that OFCOM back this, but I'd be interested to see if they respond. This has long been the reason that LiveATC.net does not publish UK ATC feeds. – Danny Beckett Jul 02 '14 at 21:52
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    "If it's not illegal to listen to then it's not illegal to pass info on in whatever form, ie web feed." That doesn't follow at all. It's not illegal for me to buy a book (or even read it in the book shop without paying for it) but it is illegal for me to reproduce the contents of that book and distribute them to others. – David Richerby Jul 03 '14 at 11:06
  • Sorry I don't see the relevance to buying a copyright book and reproducing it for others to read. – Dave Edge Jul 03 '14 at 19:23
  • The point I'm making it's only illegal to redistribute information that I have illegally obtained myself. I can understand Broadcast Receptions such as BBC or local radio stations because they hold the copyright to their own material. But who holds the copyright to ATC/Aircraft transmissions. If you can't supply feeds for any kind of general reception then why are the amateur radio websdr sites ok or are they not ok. Anyway I don't expect a response from Ofcom, but you never know. – Dave Edge Jul 03 '14 at 19:32
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    @DaveEdge The relevance of buying a book and reproducing it for others to read is that it proves that the statement "it's only illegal to redistribute information that I have illegally obtained myself" is incorrect. A book is an example of information that you can obtain legally but which it is still illegal to redistribute. – David Richerby Jul 04 '14 at 07:34