Obscenity law specialist Myles Jackman, who assisted with the appeal, has described Itzia’s successful challenging of ATVOD’s authority as “a decisive blow for sexual liberties against the forces of repressive regulation and state sanctioned censorship”.

The solicitor, of London chambers Hodge Jones and Allen, provides pro bono advice to sexual liberties campaign group Backlash, which asked him to assist with Itziar’s appeal after she went to it for help following receipt of a “threatening” letter from ATVOD in June 2013. Backlash also funded advice from Ligia Osepciu, a barrister at Monckton Chambers specialising in telecommunications regulatory challenges.

Writing in his Obscenity Lawyer blog (link below), Jackman reveals that the appeal was actually decided some time ago, but publication of the result was embargoed until Friday August 15, when Ofcom (the UK’s communications industry regulator) finally published the decision on its website.

Itzia’s website The Urban Chick Supremacy Cell (UCSC) is one of a substantial number of femdom-orientated sites targeted by ATVOD since its foundation in 2010 as Ofcom’s designated co-regulator of on-demand television. ATVOD claims the legal authority to regulate and censor not only on-demand services such as ITV Player and 4oD, but also paid-for content on websites considered to be ‘tv-like’.

In June 2013, the regulator wrote to Itzia claiming she had breached two of its rules relating to the categorisation of her online content as TV on-demand, and a third rule about content that “might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of 18”.

In her appeal, she argued that the nature and duration of the video content on her site (the average clip lasts under 8 minutes), the small number of subscribers (fewer than 60) and the modest revenue from video viewing (about $1,000 a year) meant that her website could not be considered an ODPS (On Demand Programme Service) and should therefore not be regulated by ATVOD.