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This petition was submitted during the 2015 to 2017 Parliament

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Closed petition Make it legal to listen to broadcasts not meant for the general public. (ATC)

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It is illegal to provide air traffic control feeds from within the UK due to an outdated law that originated in 1942. The law states that although it is not illegal to sell, buy or own a scanning receiver in the UK, it must only be used to listen to transmissions meant to be broadcast to the public.

OfCom (the U.K. regulatory authority for communications) has stated on numerous occasions: "It is an offence to listen to any other radio services unless you are authorised by a designated person to do so."

This means that it is illegal to listen to anything other than general reception. This is clearly a law that needs to be updated in light of the many educational uses for listening to aircraft communications. Furthermore, the original reasons for this law have long since become irrelevant.

17 signatures


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    This petition will stay open until 6 January 2017.