Thursday, March 27, 2008

How to not pay the BBC any royalties

It's a police box. Be honest - what's the first thing that comes to mind?

But now let's step back a little ...


It's about an inch high and is part of a much larger tableau of Hornby products depicting a railstop in the idyllic 1930s English countryside. To be found on the Hobbies floor of Hamleys, Regent St. Right under the noses of the BBC rights lawyers. Even allowing for the fact that the Met didn't typically plonk their police boxes on top of railway points - Messrs Hornby, I salute you.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:35 pm

    I may be wrong on this, but on my TARDIS keyring, there is a little (c) BBC 1960.

    Meaning that the BBC has the copyright to the police box, as bizarre as that sounds.

    So merely selling a police box would necessitate a copyright payment to the BBC. I think.

    Always willing to stand corrected though.

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  2. Ah, but if Hornby simply dusted off an old design predating the BBC copyright ...?

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  3. Saw David Tarrent on tv last night - getting an incredibly rapturous welcome! I think it's possible we that we all believe the man really IS Dr Who! Can't wait for new series myself...

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  4. Is David Tarrent Chris Tennant's brother? Anyway, of course he's the Doctor - didn't you see him regenerate?

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