Slashdot Mirror
British PC Tax to Replace TV License?
caffeination writes "Here in Britain, anything capable of receiving live or virtually live broadcasts is considered TV receiving equipment. Because the detector vans can't actually 'catch' people watching such broadcasts on their computers, the BBC is proposing a blanket tax on PCs instead. They received several thousand responses to this green paper, ranging from the insightful to the unprintable."
Are they planning a tax on all PC hardware, peripherals etc too, or just on a complete system? If the latter, the geeks are laughing al the way to the BBC torrent sites :)
Stuart
It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
Is this talking about how they have like an annual fee for simply owning a t.v.? Maybe it's time the government switches to something progressive for their form of taxation. Isn't this a burden on the poor? Don't the richer people pay a lot less relative to their income?
You don't need a TV licence unless your television is set up to receive broadcast programmes.
n k1 which states you need a licence "If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes"
In my house, we don't watch any broadcast programmes, but we do watch a lot of DVD's, so we have a set hooked up to our DVD player.
Recently we were getting increasingly threatening letters from the TV Licensing people, which I ignored after checking checking on http://tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp#li
Roll on a couple of weeks and one of the TV inspectors came knocking on my door, had a quick look at my setup and agreed I don't need to pay a license as I had no aerial and no way of receiving broadcast programmes.
Result!
Philosopher (n) - a wise person who is calm and rational; someone who lives a life of reason with equanimity
I'm not kidding, there was in sensationalist article in a newspaper (so poor I'm sorry to admit having read it) today (ok, it was the Mail), saying that shops are sending the details of all purchases of phones with video capabilities on to the licensing authority!
Nobody likes paying taxes but us british realise that it is neccessary.
Did everyone else just skim over this one?
Because the detector vans can't actually 'catch' people watching such broadcasts on their computers
The detector vans?
Quick poll: Who believes the TV "detector vans" are real? They must be real! Right? In fact, I've seen the advertising for the new hand held TV detector units. "We know what Mrs Brown from number 7 is watching!" They would never lie to us! Would they??
If they didn't have detector vans, how else would they know if you had an "unlicensed" TV?
Well perhaps they might just be suspicious of any household that didn't have a TV license. This is the 21st century after all. If you have ever lived in the UK and not had a TV license you will know that you get a nice warning letter in the mail pretty quickly. "We noticed that you don't seem to have a TV license for some reason. Unless you are some kind of anti-TV weirdo, maybe you should go get a license, and then we won't have to fine you."
Their "detective" skills don't end there:
A colleague recounted a story where the TV license at his flat was in a friend's name, but the friend no longer lived there. Somehow they got suspicous, and sent someone to the door to investigate. A man turned up claiming to be from the post office, and made some excuse as to why he should be let in. When the "post office" guy entered the lounge room he wanted to know if there was a license for the rather obvious TV sitting there.
"Wait a minute. What do you care? You're from the post office right?"
The guy brings out some kind of ID card saying "TV License Inspector", with some small print about being an agent of the post office.
I'm an avid TV viewer in the UK. There's not a single person I know who is happy with the way the BBC is funded, currently. Most of the best programmes are from the U.S. or on the advert-supported channels. I'm more than happy to watch/ignore adverts every 12 minutes.
I don't have children, but they steal money from me to pay for schools. I don't drive, but they steal from me to build roads. I don't read, but they steal from me to build libraries.
The value of the BBC to the nation (indeed the world) is somewhat more than the sum of Eastenders and Porridge.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
If you come in via the Ambulance-only entrance, or if you really look like you're having a "true emergency" (i.e., life threatening) they don't make you stop to fill out forms first. Otherwise, they generally like to get your insurance information first.
In most emergency departments I've been to, there are at least two, if not three, ways to get to the same treatment areas: one, you come in the 'back door' from the ambulance and/or helicopter dock, two, you come in through the front door marked "Emergency," three, you come in the front door marked "Prompt Care." The latter two differ in that you're only supposed to use the 'Emergency' one for life-threatening cases, the wait is usually shorter, and it costs substantially more (for whoever ends up paying). I suppose at bigger hospitals perhaps "Prompt Care" and "Emergency" are really two different areas, but at the ones I've been to, generally "Prompt Care" just means there's an extra waiting area and reception desk to screen you and decide how quickly you get into the E.R.
On most insurance plans, if you go into the "Emergency" door when it's not something later deemed to be life threatening, you're on your own for the increased cost. As such, I always use the cheap door.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I've never heard of emergency treatement requiring payment in advance. In my experiance it isn't until after treatement that they start talking about payment (for any planned visits everything is always paid in advance though).
A friend's father died after he turned up at the hospital while having a heart attack, and the hospital insisted on checking out his insurance first, then said they didn't want to deal with that insurance company, and sent him to another hospital. He died trying to drive himself to the next hospital.
Yes, the hospital was fined for turning away a critically ill patient, but that doesn't bring the guy back to life. Make me glad I don't deal with the US health system.
Hear Hear...
As an American that lived in the UK for almost 2 years (and had the pleasure?? of visiting the A&E of my local hospital)...
The Brits for the most part have it right. Not only was I NOT asked anything but my name and address to get care at accident and emergency, but they had to transfer me to ANOTHER hospital near by and while I could have walked or taken a taxi, they insisted that I ride in an ambulance. There was never any talk of money, they didnt want to see my insurance card (even though I had a NHS card) And I got top notch care.
Now back to the TV thing. I was only too happy to pay the license fee for my TV. I believe it was about 100 Pounds for a color TV, maybe a little more. But I got good value from the BBC. On top of that I could pay 99 Pounds and get a little set-top box that would allow me to get a dozen or so FREE TO AIR DIGITAL channels. 99 Pounds for the box, thats it.
But this is why I give money to PBS here.