Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-y ... tv-licence



So I now need to buy a TV Licence. Just thought I'd let anyone else know who was using it for catch-up only.

Bout time, you leeches.

Does that include BBC news stories?

Yes. EVERYONE nees a TV licence. No exceptions.

I was just following the letter of the law. Y'know, those things you think are important.

So if I go to a café and use their wifi to watch something, am I responsible for getting a TV license, or is the café?

You are responsible.

So if I go to work and use their PC and their wifi to watch something, am I responsible for getting a TV licence, or is work?

Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right, myp. A wise man once said that to me.

One has a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws. Or, if you are French, set fire to lorry loads of sheep.

Was it me?

Not sure you can use that excuse in your next tribunal...

Yeah, that's a weird one, as the licence as it currently stands applies to a premises not to an individual.

It's almost like they haven't thought this through.

I hope that helps. :Lollercopter!

I dunno, I can't really see me being in a position where we're saying "we're allowed to do it but we're not going to because we think it's morally wrong" tbf.

And tagged onto the same question.

If I'm at work and a TV is on in the background and I turn around and happen to catch a glimpse of it - is that me or work ?
Even worse if that TV is actually playing something back from Iplayer (and I don't know that) - and i happen to see it - who is responsible then ?

Then The Vision is a liar.

Except he's not - it seems to be based on whether the device is connected to the power.

Hmmm. So when I buy a TV licence for my house, I only buy one that's for the address - not everyone in the house needs their own licence. So does that mean that everyone who lives there is allowed to watch iplayer on their mobile phones when they're out and about? How could you possibly police that? Everyone could just argue they're temporarily resident at someone else's house and then we only need one person in the country to buy a licence.

Yes, they specifically say that.

Then how the eff can they possibly police that?

It's bonkers and pointless.

How will they enforce this? With the TV they have your address and knock on the door etc.

How are they going to find people with tablets and phones and no license?

Maybe you will have to give your name and address when you buy a phone, PC or tablet like you do when you buy a TV.

Then the licensing people can send you threating letters for 6 months even though you have a license

I also wonder if they can now go to peoples houses and say that because then have a phone or tablet that can support Iplayer then they must have a license. I think they argue that if you have a TV that can pick up BBC then saying you don't watch it or that you use Netflix only etc is not reason to get off paying

They have vans with machines in them and know what you are watching.

Turns out the answer is that it depends on whether your device is plugged into the mains or not.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-y ... anisations

I am not taking the piss.

Bonking your cousin.
Bagpipes.
Automatic cat washers

What if it's plugged into a pc, which is plugged into the mains?

Lewie has me on ignore.

Queue jumping.

So if i go into a business , plug my phone into a power point and start streaming some live tv the business is responsible for getting a tv license ?

But then they reveal that actually its a fake power plug and actually its connected to a battery and then it switches back to me :-)

Could be an inchoate offence of abstracting electricity?

They've tried to come up with a rule for mobile devices and fucked it up because they're morons. Device ownership would have seemed the logical option.

Germany switched a few years ago to a flat levy on properties.

Arguing about the technicalities of whether or not you should be paying for a licence if you're levitating above a bakery with your mobile phone connected to an extension cable trailing to a nearby industrial toxic waste dump whilst using the wi-fi of a passing jumbo jet is missing the point.

If you use the BBC's services then you should be paying the licence fee, is what it comes down to.

Indeed, we could have got out of paying the licence fee because we didn't (and don't) have any means of receiving television broadcasts in our house, but we've always paid the licence fee because we use the BBC's services. (I'd pay the licence fee for Radio 6 alone.)

I do, but the owners of the building I'm in don't, and it's fairly trivial to make them responsible.

And Radio 4. And Radio 3. And the website. And BBC4. And 'Only Connect'. And (etc etc)

Just looked up what I wrote the last time we discussed the licence fee. This still sums up my position. We'd miss the BBC if it goes.

Whereas now Top Gear and Zane Lowe are gone I'd miss Annie Mac on a Friday night on Radio 1, and that's it.

Everything else I could so very easily do without. The BBC as it stands just doesn't really make sense in a modern world.

The BBC is essential in keeping some sort of debate that is grounded at least somewhere near to reality, something that both sides moan is biased against them. Although it'll doubtless get vandalised into nonexistence by this current shower of absolute fucking Tory cunts just like they seem to want to fuck over everything that doesn't sit exactly with their shitty world view.

But yeah we should just fuck the BBC off let Murdoch run the whole thing, because that'll be fucking grand.

I use the BBC News website several times a day and think that's worth the license fee alone. I'm sure I read something a while back that said that if you used their site, you'd need a license but looking now, that doesn't seem true, so I've essentially been using my license to watch Match of the Day.

Is it, though? If it wasn't there is there simply no alternative you could use, like Al-Jazeera perhaps?

In the same sort of vein, I often wonder what would happen if BBC1 and BBC2 didn't sit at the top of the guide on Sky and Virgin.

It's a real pain when you go there whilst on holiday and the non-UK version appears with all those adverts.

Arguably, it's the access to its guaranteed slot on the EPGs that prevents ITV from handing back its Channel 3 licences and freeing itself from its (admittedly pretty dilute) public service obligations. The value of the position is probably declining over time.

Really slowly, though. If you were allowed to reorder the guide the value would probably go through the floor (hence it isn't going to happen for sometime).

I didn't know it did - always use the app, me. Mild interest piqued.

To me it's worth it, but I do spend a lot of time on there. I do visit other news sites, but only to read linked articles. I never feel the urge to get all my news from them. At least with the BBC I know there'll be plenty of stuff I'll read through or watch (like the recent cricket highlights) and the license fee means I don't need to worry about blocking ads.

Since the charter renewal earlier this year, the BBC are a lot safer that they were and will be for a good few years. I think the BBC were shitting themselves beforehand, but they got a pretty decent deal from the government.

As for iPlayer, I don't get why they couldn't issue licence holders with logon credentials that could only be used on a fixed (but reasonable) number of devices.

I know I'm pretty atypical, but since I don't actually live in the UK I'd not actually even think about paying the licence fee even if I could. I use BBC services very infrequently, and there's not much BBC stuff I want to watch. If there was a sightly cheaper package available internationally that gave me access to BBC produced iPlayer stuff plus archive stuff I'd probably pay it, but no such option exists.

In terms of stuff airing now/recently, it's pretty much just Robot Wars and a the odd drama. I think the only legit options for me are wait for DVDs, or not watch them, so I end up resorting to illegitimate options.

Edit: although I value BBC services existing even if I don't use them much.