> They did. The BBC carefully avoided saying anything meaningful.
I think it can be interpreted a little more charitably than that:
> We welcome members of the public contacting us regarding programmes they believe are lost archive recordings
They're literally feeding lines to potential respondents, to help them avoid implicating themselves in theft. You didn't take reels from the studio, you found "lost recordings" they were looking for.
> and are happy to work with them to restore lost or missing programmes to the BBC archives
They're doing it again here. It's not "returning shit you stole," it's "restoring lost or missing programmes." Return it as lost and stick to your story.
FWIW, here in the US "we will work with you" is the exact same verbiage we use in calls to recover lost equipment we actually need but retain discretion in litigation over.
We don't commit to promises of amnesty because sometimes it turns out you've been dumping brand-new equipment off the loading dock and selling it on eBay for years, and that's not worth looking past just for the return of one item.
But if you happen to have the one thing we're looking for and weren't misappropriating millions of dollars in assets in addition to the lost item, we just want it back and won't ask questions.
I think it can be interpreted a little more charitably than that:
> We welcome members of the public contacting us regarding programmes they believe are lost archive recordings
They're literally feeding lines to potential respondents, to help them avoid implicating themselves in theft. You didn't take reels from the studio, you found "lost recordings" they were looking for.
> and are happy to work with them to restore lost or missing programmes to the BBC archives
They're doing it again here. It's not "returning shit you stole," it's "restoring lost or missing programmes." Return it as lost and stick to your story.
FWIW, here in the US "we will work with you" is the exact same verbiage we use in calls to recover lost equipment we actually need but retain discretion in litigation over.
We don't commit to promises of amnesty because sometimes it turns out you've been dumping brand-new equipment off the loading dock and selling it on eBay for years, and that's not worth looking past just for the return of one item.
But if you happen to have the one thing we're looking for and weren't misappropriating millions of dollars in assets in addition to the lost item, we just want it back and won't ask questions.