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Either way we can’t really charge people for seeing electromagnetic radiation.

• jeroenhd 3y ago
  I'm pretty sure the British TV license says otherwise, although in practice it's an often abused extortion mechanism. It's quite possible to detect dedicated tuned receivers as well. In fact, in many countries pointing your SDR at 2G/3G/4G/5G frequencies is basically an instant felony, even without attempts to decrypt the traffic. If you get caught watching such traffic, you'll pay much more than just a small tax.
  • lucb1e 3y ago
    You mean listening to those frequencies, not broadcasting? I didn't know that was illegal anywhere, besides maybe military or other government bands.
  • arp242 3y ago
    You pay for the programmes, not the broadcast, obviously. You can just say "I don't need a TV license" online and usually that's the end of it. https://tvlicensing.co.uk/noTV https://tvlicensing.co.uk/noTV And in many other countries the "TV license" is just included in general tax; in e.g. when the TV license was abolished in the Netherlands taxes went up by 1.1% to compensate. In Germany it's €220/year/person (not household) regardless of whether you have a TV or not. This way you don't pay for a product I don't use.
• lucb1e 3y ago
  As if there's no way to codify that a device determining a spacetime location from GPS signals is a taxed good. To give another example, you used not to have to pay public broadcasting tax in Germany if you didn't have a TV or radio in your household. I would be highly amused to see you try to argue "it's just an electromagnetic radiation plotter, what do you mean tele, eh, vision?" to an unamused government official.