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Termyn8or -> RE: More about the TV Licence (7/29/2009 12:28:40 PM)
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All this kidding around is nice, but the whole concept is a bit bothersome. I know the law is different over there. Over here some people study law and really screw with the court system, and licensing requirements are at issue at times.
The concept involves asserting that a license is a priveledge, and therefore to require a license they must first make the action that the license enables illegal in the first place. Of course in most cases they have done this. And yes that means that driving a car in the US is technically illegal. This leaves many stones to upturn in the ensuing litigation.
But wait now, there are plenty of other issues. For example, I have been known to do a bit of house repair. In some localities you had better not have thrown your old hot water tank on the tree lawn like we do in the dirty city. They will come looking for a permit for the work, and this is on YOUR house !. My response is that I don't need their fucking permission. Add to the the fact that the guy calls after work and luckily there is a new tank in one of our garages or the DIY type store is open late. It is impossible to get a permit and these people need to be on their way in the morning. As a contractor I would have to fight them tooth and nail, but as a homeowner I simply challenge their jurisdiction. I don't need their permission to fix my house. I have also ordered inspectors off my property and refused to sign anything. I do not expect these tactics to work in a foreign country, but you can go pretty far here because they want to retain the illusion of freedom.
Here, they do require a license to transmit though, except on citizen's band radio. Even so you are limited to four watts output. So my buddy and his cohorts "obtain" a transmitting amplifier and retune it to the CB wavelength. It is supposed to be like 50,000 watts but they figured they were getting about 15,000 watts. This dude was bound to get busted. When they came they told him that when he keyed up the mike, his voice echoed all over the police station, I mean he was coming through on the toaster oven and fax machine ! Whaddya gonna do with a guy like that ?
I would not be able to come up with a valid defense in that case even here.
Now in the days before digital they could tell if you had a TV in the house, and even what channel you are watching. But now with digital and say an LCD TV you should be able to get away with it. They used to be able to detect because of the reactive scanning system in the regular old style TVs. They radiate, and in sync with the signal recieved. This is not true of digital.
Now I am not so sure this whole thread wasn't meant as a joke, you never know. But I actually have a question about this. What if you have a TV, VCR, DVD player and so forth but do not have an antenna ? In other words is the license for that or for recieving the signal ? Would you need a license for the fillings in your teeth if they were able to pick up BBC ? lol
Of course leave it to me to bring up such a point. Remember I am the one chomping at the bit for a fight with the RIAA over here, even though I would have have a hard time financing such a battle right now. Perhaps things will be going better next year and I'll just move 50,000 files into my shared directory and see what happens.
Actually in the internet age I am surprised that they are even messing with this TV set licensing BS. Really, as long as that DSL carrier is there I have no need for an antenna. And what if you shot the video with a camcorder, do you need a license to play it ?
Enquiring minds want to know.
T
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