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Here in the UK, we are forced to pay for the TV license which funds the BBC, but go to a different country and we lose access to the service with no refund poss
by ndsipa_pomu 5y ago
Here in the UK, we are forced to pay for the TV license which funds the BBC, but go to a different country and we lose access to the service with no refund possible.
- _dain_ 5y agoyou don't have to pay it
- ndsipa_pomu 5y agoHowever, the law says that you do need a license to watch or record any programmes shown on TV on any channel (not just BBC) on any device.
- _dain_ 5y agoso? they can't prove it unless you let them into your house. fuck them.
- kingcharles 5y agoThey can get a warrant to make a forced entry if they have probable cause to believe you are watching TV without a licence. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-administering-the-licence-fee-AB20 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-administering-the-li... (odd that licensing is with an S but licence in British is with a C)
- eptcyka 5y agoWe've paid for the TV license for the time we wanted to watch TV, and then have stopped for years now. It's trivial to just not watch television and listen to radio these days.
- vmception 5y agoyes, that's a shitty user experience but the TV license is the problem not your lack of access to it. sorry you're stuck with that.
- ndsipa_pomu 5y agoAlso an issue is that the BBC may own rights to broadcast in the UK, but not other countries, so even if they wanted to, they would have legal issues with crossing borders.
- southerntofu 5y agoThis could be easily mitigated by legal regulations on the national level. Even if a contract tried to enforce it, the law precedes contractual obligations.
- ndsipa_pomu 5y agoI don't understand how that would work. If the UK passes a law stating that TV license payers are allowed to watch BBC programmes (e.g. iPlayer) in say, Belgium, then if a rights owner prosecutes the BBC for breach of contract (in Belgium) how would UK law be applicable?
- captaincaveman 5y agoExactly, BBC would need publishing rights in all countries the viewers would wish to watch it in. Unless they changed all there existing agreements with rights holders to not be constrained by territories, which they aren't going to do, or at least only for a lot of money (and even then they might not be able to if the rights are already granted exclusively to someone else).
- southerntofu 5y agoI don't think that's how it works. It can be distributed in UK following UK laws yet accessed from some other place. If i borrow a DVD from my local library and travel abroad with it, my library is not infringing on anything and neither am i.
- bserge 5y agoTbf, "forced" is a bit of an overstatement. You can just never pay and tell the inspector to fuck off with no repercussions. Unlike Germany, where your credit score will go down and there's a very real risk of jail time.
- tomn 5y agoThe TV licensing website says that you can get a refund if you're not going to need it; is that not true? https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/refunds-and-cancellations/apply-for-a-refund https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/refunds-...
- ndsipa_pomu 5y agoYou can get a refund if you won’t need your licence again before it expires, and you have at least one complete month left on it. Not helpful e.g. a two week holiday.