Autonomy

Talking of watching TV through VPN / iplayer is akin to benefit fraud in that you are avoiding the license fee... (vaguely...)

Not to hijack the thread - but that made me think - if in the UK you were to watch all your TV through the internet rather than digital / cable - are you still liable to pay the TV license (I assume you are...)

shiva

dont think so and i think i saw an article a while ago stating the bbc would like to change this especially given that pc's are increasingly used as home entertainment systems

Brains1983

think they must have had the legislation changed;

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/

Hello.Kitty

yes you are... they changed the wording to say "using any device capable of receiving real-time television transmission" or something.

What gets me is that I'm all paid up with my UK TV licence and yet it's not portable... strictly speaking, I should be able to access iplayer and the like for my wonga!

seven seas

I'd happily pay the fee if I could access Iplayer from here. Technically possible, I imagine, but there aren't enough of us to warrant them doing it. I guess most expats are happy enough without.

Millhouse

I watch iplayer and don't pay the fee...

Hello.Kitty

*legally*

As for not being able to access it abroad, it apparently comes from a copyright thing with the US... that's also why we can't access american internet radio stations in the UK.

Still, I can't help feeling that if they just switched the TV License to a subscription, which it is, really, just not an optional one, then they'd widen their market. After all, even at £140 or whatever it currently is, it's cheaper than Sky... or Du!

shiva

ahh must have been quite a while ago i saw it then

Autonomy

Territorial Intellectual Property Rights... limited by territory, not by nationality or ability to pay the fee...

Rather interesting that if you have a internet connection you have to pay the TV license...

Having said that.... the BBC and the National Health Service are 2 things I'd be more than happy to pay for if I was paying UK "tax"...

Norm_uk

What a wonderful testimony of unbridled socialism!

Governments should stop paying people like this and subsidise jobs instead and work with industry to get people to work...only the sick and old should be able to get help.

Makes me sick...am actually thinking of never going back because I don't see why even one penny of what I earn should go to people like this. Between them and all the money we give to immigrants and foreign aid to dictatorships it's no wonder Britain is broke.

N.

hnd

Here's another reason not to live in the UK:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...stones-it.html

OK, I know that there are rubber neckers at every fatal car crash here (as there are in the UK or wherever) and I know that many will stop to take photos on their mobile phone cameras.

But, honestly, children doing the same and throwing sticks and stones at a body and laughing whilst doing it?

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Hamlet, Act I, Sc 4

Hello.Kitty

You know, that actually doesn't shock me or get me angry at all. In fact, if I were to find a dead body (God forbid), maybe I'd give it a prod to see if it wasn't in fact dead. I don't think I would film myself doing so, but hey...

I've seen more shocking things here - I've seen people jostle for a better camera angle in order to film paramedics trying to resuscitate someone... I've seen kids lobbing sticks and stone at animals in a zoo to try and get them to "do something" and of course, people just watching whilst someone is in trouble.

I'm more shocked at the latter because they are dehumanising (or de-animalising) a living creature.

Norm_uk

Can't argue with that. We've lost our way as a nation - thrown the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. The Chinese say it takes three generations to civillise a people but only one for them to become barbarians...

We have an uphill battle in the UK if we want to reverse the seeming increase of bad youth behaviour and civil irresponsibility. A lot of unpopular decisions needs to be made at the government level I think.

...and that's one reason why things are a mess. We care more about animals than people as a nation. That said you can judge a lot about a country's moral compass by how they treat livestock and pets.

N.

Hello.Kitty

oh, don't get me wrong, I'm no animal rights activist... it was merely a comment on how cheap life has become (always was? Become again?!) - life, death, suffering... they've all become spectator sports (again).

I think you'll find that the moment in time when humankind didn't relish the tale or act of someone/ something suffering for their own personal pleasure or gain to be... er... non-existent.

For us Brits, maybe there were a few decades in the 20th Century where we were quite nice to fellow living things, but apart from that you can line up a huge list from gladatorial games, feudalism, slavery, hunting for fun, colonialism to football hooliganism and suicide forums.

Rant and rave all we like about how "sick and twisted" people have become, but in reality, it's there within us too...

Hello.Kitty

Hot off the press:
"Unless they have disabilities, families will not receive any more than the average working household earns."