T.V Licence and how to avoid paying for it.

[Beorn]

http://www.bbctvlicence.com/

http://uk-tvlicensing-resistance.co.nr/

http://www.jifvik.org/tv/

http://www.marmalade.net/lime.html

http://www.tvlicensing.biz/

http://www.onebillionpageviews.org/avoid.html


I haven't renewed my licence for this year and don't intend to. The BBC has let me down on several occasions and I feel the time has come for the BBC to strike it alone and start funding its programming by advertising and other financial backing.

These links should direct you in how to deal with the company leased to collect the licence fee.

[Oresai]

Snap!
I stopped paying for mine too, and actually informed them of that fact. They gave me a small refund! :confused::rolleyes:
I have always detested paying the exhorbitant license fee. With such things as Freeview and Satellite, we are penalised if we take out a satellite or cable subscription even if we don`t watch the beeb by having to pay for an almost two hundred pounds license fee on top of that. :mad:
I do not consider the beebs programming to be anything like the quality they had during the sixties and seventies, it has degraded into a bunch of children`s programmes and endless repeats. And we should pay for that? No...not in my opinion.
It got ridiculous when they talk of licensing those with the Internet simply because they could access some (not even all!) BBC programmes online. :rolleyes2:
I favour the pay per view system where, if one wants to watch BBC programmes, they key in a payment and do so. The rest of us can opt out without fear of prosecution.
Incidentally, until a month ago I was a member of an online community that had a blog site specifically for Islanders. It became a very real community, with remote islanders meeting up, and firm friendships were formed because of it that still exist in real life.
It was thriving.
But the BBC shut it down. When the islanders petitioned and complained we were given an auto response which stated the money spent on hosting the site was better put to producing `quality programmes` in the future.
This was just after it was announced the BBC were buying out Woolworth`s investments just before they went bust.
So I think it`s safe to say the paltry amount it must have cost them to keep the blog site going, comparitively speaking, did not go towards those touted programmes but towards financial investments.
Which begs the question, if the BBC is a financial institution now, why the feck are we paying the license fee?

[Treffie]

Wow, how interesting. I've been wondering how us mere mortals can receive recompense for the diatribe that the BBC is gushing out.

[GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS]

I'm in the same situation, but now that all the broadcasts in Sweden are digital it's easier to dodge the fee. To have to pay the fee you need a digital receiver, and the analog receiver in my TV doesn't count anymore.

(Though I still get broadcasts through my apartment building. :thumbs up )

[Beorn]

The BBC has dropped a controversial tracking system from its UK website after privacy activists complained that it was reporting personal information including their post codes to a US company.
Until recently, the BBC was sending copies of cookies dropped on bbc.co.uk visitors to Visual Sciences, a web analytics operation bought in 2007 by Omniture, a Utah-based online marketing firm.
http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/ad/reg.music_media.4159/front;tile=2;pos=top;dcove=d;sz=336x280;ord=3TkC1d Rk6jcAABRC5k4AAABH? (http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/jump/reg.music_media.4159/front;tile=2;pos=top;dcove=d;sz=336x280;ord=3TkC1d Rk6jcAABRC5k4AAABH?)
Posters at NoDPI (https://nodpi.org/), an internet privacy forum, noticed the accompanying browser redirects to a server owned by Omniture last September. Further investigation showed information sent by the BBC included each user's IP address and post code, which bbc.co.uk collects to target weather reports and other location-specific content.

A trawl of the BBC's privacy policy revealed it did not disclose that it was handing over post codes and IP addresses to Omniture, prompting complaints to the corporation's Information Policy and Compliance Unit (IPC).
In January the IPC replied that the data sharing was part of an initiative by BBC Worldwide, the national broadcaster's commercial arm, "for the purposes of understanding consumption of the site by country (via GeoIP conversion) and to track consumption based on the number of user sessions".
The NoDPI member who raised the issue, an IT expert who asked not to be named, said: "Information given to Omniture included my IP address, my country, my post code, the dates and times I visited the site, the news stories I read and details of every news video clip I watched. You could derive a great deal of information by mining that data."
"Given that the BBC is supposedly licence-funded in the UK, there was no justification for it to provide an online marketing/behavioural targeting company with this data. For purely statistical purposes, the BBC has its own system."
The IPC argued in its response that because Omniture is based in the US it satisfied EU data protection requirements. But it conceded that the BBC privacy policy should "reflect the processing of IP addresses by this US-based, safe harbour-registered service provider".
But now the BBC has decided to stop sending UK users' data to Omniture altogether. In an email sent on Wednesday, it told the NoDPI member: "The BBC has ceased using Omniture in relation to UK users visiting bbc.co.uk or bbc.com from the UK and this has been achieved via geoIP restriction. This means that BBC Worldwide is still able to report on its international audience but that the bbc.co.uk homepage is unaffected by our commercial subsidiary's use of the Omniture/Visual Sciences product."
The broadcaster added that it had updated its privacy policy to disclose its continued Omniture data sharing to international visitors.
The BBC had not responded to a request from The Register to explain the decision at the time of publication. A spokesman said the relevant executive was unavailable.
The NoDPI member who raised the issue said he was pleased the BBC had seemingly reacted to his privacy worries. "I was particularly concerned because my children are regular users of CBeebies online," he added. In its email, the corporation said children's sites had never been included in its Omniture reporting.
Omniture was at the centre of a controversy (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/03/adobe.apple) early last year over the way Adobe software was reporting user activity to the firm's servers. Creative Suite 3 was connecting to Omniture via an unusual URL (192.168.112.2O7.net - note the capital letter "O") that critics charged was deliberately designed to look like an IP address to avoid suspicion.
Omniture insisted that the URL's construction was innocent, but the episode clinched the firm a poor reputation among internet privacy watchers.

Source (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/06/bbc_omniture/)

[Absinthe]

How about tossing the TV altogether...it's useless anyways ;)

[Loki]

How about tossing the TV altogether...it's useless anyways ;)

I would if it wasn't for the UFO documentaries. :D

[Skandi]

I have great fun with the licence people, we don't receive any TV signal in our house, and therefore by law do not have to buy a tv licence, however we do have tv's used for films and games. We notified them of this and for 6 months all was good, then they came round and started threatening, so offered to let them in to check. Oh no we can't do that we can't come in?? WTF then how are they meant to check? their stupid little detectors don't tell them anything.

[Beorn]

their stupid little detectors don't tell them anything.

I have serious doubts they actually have detectors at all!

When I was caught out a few years back, the bloke came into the hostel compound in a small car and left in a small car. Hardly room for the high-tech detectors they waffle on about.

According to some ex-employees, they "detect" if you have a t.v without a licence by simply peering through your window, or watching for the glare of the screens. If they can't see your address as covered, then they come knocking on your door with bullshit about having just consulted their equipment and noticed you weren't covered.

[Hors]

I have a big satellite dish and use a server which allows me to watch ALL encoded satellite channels in Europe. British BSkyB, German Premiere, French CanalSat, Greek Nova, Spanish Digital+, Italian Sky and on and on and on and on and on.

Are you people aware it's possible? :D

[lei.talk]

Are you people aware it's possible? :Dplease, post all the relevant details
for successfull emulation. :thumb001:

[Hors]

http://xtv.sytes.net/

You should register an account and transfer a bit of money. You may pay only for 3 days to test the line/service (my advice is to do it, even thou they're ready to refund you without hassle). Almost all major European sat channel packs (that's except BSkyB and SkyItalia) for 10 dollars a month. BSkyB and SkyItalia are available on relsat.org (no English there, unfortunately).

Quality/reliability is good. Not perfect, but quite acceptable.

Of course, you should have a sat receiver connected to a computer/Inet which could be used with MPCS or compatible software.

[RoyBatty]

I have a big satellite dish and use a server which allows me to watch ALL encoded satellite channels in Europe. British BSkyB, German Premiere, French CanalSat, Greek Nova, Spanish Digital+, Italian Sky and on and on and on and on and on.

Are you people aware it's possible? :D

Sure, I did the same thing back in 2002 using a DVB card and a softcam but later moved house and lost interest in it. Did manage to rip some great B-Movies and saw the great Russian proletarian TV series "Dalnoboishiki" on it! Good times. :thumb001:


please, post all the relevant details
for successfull emulation. :thumb001:

Lei, you'll need to find out whether you've got line of site to the Hotbird / Astra (and some other nearby satellite clusters) from your secret base in the USA. Otherwise it ain't gonna work unless those same channels and broadcasting systems are relayed on similar US placed satellites.

Look here for an idea of providers, systems and regions

http://www.lyngsat.com/


I have serious doubts they actually have detectors at all!


My guess is that they'd be using a sorted database of addresses where no license payments have been received from and that they'd work their way through it.

Detecting whether an analogue TV is in use is fairly trivial. The TV emits a weak signal through the antenna which can be measured from some distance away so if people are watching it's easy to detect by using a directional antenna and basic equipment.

Regarding privacy and data collection by the "you-know-who's", it is probably now getting to the point where one should be using an Internet proxy (which costs money again..... ) sigh :rolleyes:

[RoyBatty]

Some more info on DVB systems for those who are interested. There's a lot of reading and this only scratches the surface. As always, be aware of some of these URL's, downloads and so forth. It's hard to know which are 100% safe or not.


Satellites and broadcasting systems / providers by region, look here for info. Think that people in the US will generally not be able to see European satellite groups like Astra and Hotbird as these would be over the horison and there wouldn't be line-of-sight to the satellite.
http://www.lyngsat.com/


DVB-S cards, keys, software, misc info
http://www.avforums.com/forums/windows-media-center-edition-mce/319927-howto-sky-through-dvb-s-card-within-mce.html
http://www.happyuc3.net.tc/
http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/satellite-pc-card-systems-internet-satellite/
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=141
http://www.sateuropa.co.uk/Default.asp
http://www.dvbsoft.net/download.php
http://www.sat-television.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93
http://www.eurocardsharing.com/tutorials/f102
http://www.coolstf.com/mpeg/index.html#dbsreceivers

MythTV
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User_Manual:Setting_up_DVB-S_for_satellite



Technisat Cards popular with some people

http://www.technisat.com/index4986.html?nav=PC_products,en,76-215
http://www.technisat.com/indexf40a.html?nav=PC_products,en,76-219



CAMS and misc info (in many cases it's possible to emulate the CAM in software)
http://www.cardman.com/cams.html


DVB in the USA
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/dvbpciusa.html

[SwordoftheVistula]

I've also heard that the 'detecter vans' they drive around are empty.

My friend's sunday school teacher never had a TV, at least not in years, and they still came after her threatening that she should pay up, claiming they had 'detected a tv' in her house.

[_Ted_]

My friend's sunday school teacher never had a TV, at least not in years, and they still came after her threatening that she should pay up, claiming they had 'detected a tv' in her house.

Oh yeah?

My mother had a great-uncle that was 95. The guy had never had a TV in his entire life and the jackboots showed up one day, looking for his TV and threatening him telling him how he needed to pay up. :mad:

He was so shaken up by this event he paid up and didn't even buy a TV. :rolleyes:

This was in the early nineties/late eighties and I'd imagine the BBC jackboots have increased their levels of intimidation, too.

@Hors - Thanks for that information. I'll be sure to look into it. If it allows me to drop the miserable excuse my family and I have got for digital television then it can only be a good thing.

I don't watch TV shows on TV. I prefer to download them either by Warez or Torrents, plus a lot of my favourite shows aren't shown on TV full stop, or are shown on Sky; which I'm definitely not encouraging anyone in my household to pay for.

[Beorn]

Licence rebel prosecuted as BBC finally tackles TV fee 'refuseniks' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197531/Licence-rebel-prosecuted-BBC-finally-tackles-TV-fee-refuseniks.html)


The BBC is prosecuting a viewer who has refused on principle to pay his television licence for seven years, amid claims the Corporation is fearful of a growing backlash against the fee.
Retired engineer John Kelly was one of several thousand people who have refused to pay since 2002 in protest at what they regard as bias in the BBC's news coverage of issues such as the European Union.
He and nearly all the other 'refuseniks', including former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, have so far escaped court – despite tens of thousands of prosecutions each year.

Cont...

[Beorn]

TV licence dodger: 'The television is for my dog, not me' (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6211222/TV-licence-dodger-The-television-is-for-my-dog-not-me.html)


TV Licensing, which collects the £142.50 annual fee, has compiled a list of the worst defences offered by the 280,000 people caught using a television without a licence this year.

Among them was one TV owner, who said: “My dog watches it while I’m at work to keep him company – not me.”
Another, caught red-handed, said: “The subtitles on my TV are set to French so I’m not paying a UK tax for something I can’t read.”
Other viewers blamed financial hardship for not getting a licence, including one man who pleaded: “My wife has her hair done twice a week, so we find it difficult to pay.”
Matrimonial problems provided inspiration for another man’s excuse, who claimed: “I haven’t renewed my licence because my wife flushed it down the toilet, along with my wallet.”

There is one excuse which doesn't seem to be mentioned within this article, most likely because every person who has used this excuse has won their day in court or not been investigated further.


Sir Michael Lyons
The Chairman, By 1st Class Post
BBC, Recorded Delivery.
Broadcast centre,
201 Wood lane,
London
W12 7TP

Dear Sir Michael Lyons

Re: The Royal Charter of the BBC, & the Treason & Felony Act, 1848
Notice Before Action.

It has been brought to my attention that the Corporation has received and is now receiving substantial amounts of funding from the European Union, in breach of Charter Provisions, and that in consequence of this very suspect arrangement the BBC is now reduced to the function of providing both broadcasting & propaganda facilities to a form of alien authority that fails to acknowledge the Supreme Authority of the British Crown.

I must advise you that all such conduct serves to breach the provisions of the Treason Act, 1351 with the further provisions of the Treason & Felony Act, 1848.

In addition, I must advise that the Treason & Felony Act of 1848 provides that it is a Criminal Offence for Subjects of the Crown to give aid or comfort to Traitors, and that this offence is punishable by imprisonment for life.

I am concerned for my own position and I must ask you to cease and desist from all treacherous conduct & financial arrangements, without delay.

Unless I receive your written assurance that the Corporation will issue an immediate public apology for all Treason committed thus far, with your further guarantee that the Corporation will cease and desist from all and any conduct that fails to maintain the Supremacy of the British Crown, then I must give fair warning of my intention to discontinue the payment of all such moneys as are now being applied to the financial support of the BBC.

I look forward to receipt of your immediate response to this present letter and I give notice that payments in support of the BBC will be suspended, unless I receive a satisfactory response within 14 days of this present date.

Yours faithfully, (Sign Here)

[Fortis in Arduis]

How about tossing the TV altogether...it's useless anyways ;)

I actually did this once because my mum forbade me to see the end of 'Edward Scissorhands' when it was first shown on television.

I think that was a *proportionate response* for a 13 year old.

[ikki]

heh, you dont have to let them in... and any scans etc are all just BS, and in the case they actually do detect something ... its invasion of privacy and disturbance of domestic peace.
Inform them that they are criminals and call the police on the tv licence inspectors...

Let them come to the door, no havent got a tv.. no you may not enter.. go away [close door].

[Germanicus]

I've also heard that the 'detecter vans' they drive around are empty.

My friend's sunday school teacher never had a TV, at least not in years, and they still came after her threatening that she should pay up, claiming they had 'detected a tv' in her house.


Listen up meatheads............. those of you who have in the past paid for a TV licence in the UK are on the computer, and the expirey date comes up a flag is raised straight away notifiying them that you have not paid up. All details of your household are installed on your file, how many adults and children and the like. Most households cannot survive without the TV culture so when you do not reapply for the licence you become top priority to be checked out at a time of THEIR choosing........................pay up, you know it makes sense. or pay £1,000 fine

[ikki]

Listen up meatheads............. those of you who have in the past paid for a TV licence in the UK are on the computer, and the expirey date comes up a flag is raised straight away notifiying them that you have not paid up. All details of your household are installed on your file, how many adults and children and the like. Most households cannot survive without the TV culture so when you do not reapply for the licence you become top priority to be checked out at a time of THEIR choosing........................pay up, you know it makes sense. or pay £1,000 fine

hehe, used to fill their annual return letter, postage paid, with various mohammeds pizza ads...
And then they called me several years straight.... until i finally took a different route :D

Oh how nice you have called. What is your relation to Jesus? You do know he will forgive all your sins... refuse to discuss tv, licence or anything except jesus :D They wont call you again after that :D

[Troll's Puzzle]

how does the TV license affect the CORNISH people? :icon_ask:

i suspect they are neglected and underrepresented, and overtaxed by it, by the foreign ENGLISH.

someone needs to speak up for the CORNISH people! :mad:

[SaxonCeorl]

As an outside observer, I can truly say that the British authorities don't f*** around about the TV licenses. When I was there, apparently someone in our flat had a TV without a license, and they sent repeated letters to all of us warning of fines, which eventually led to a "telly officer" going door to door wanting to have a look around.

[Beorn]

which eventually led to a "telly officer" going door to door wanting to have a look around.

What did you say when he/she knocked on your door?

[SwordoftheVistula]

As an outside observer, I can truly say that the British authorities don't f*** around about the TV licenses. When I was there, apparently someone in our flat had a TV without a license, and they sent repeated letters to all of us warning of fines, which eventually led to a "telly officer" going door to door wanting to have a look around.

How did they know it was in your building but not know where it was? Sounds to me like they just made that up as an excuse to search the building.

[Beorn]

How did they know it was in your building but not know where it was? Sounds to me like they just made that up as an excuse to search the building.

They simply act upon negative responses. If you live in a flat that has previously paid towards a license and has failed to make a payment within, say, a period of 3 months, the suspicion is that the flat you occupy is failing to pay the fee.

Out come the letters.

Failure to respond to the letters brings out the 'men in vans'.

The 'men in vans' have absolutely no power with which to search your premises, or even to know the identity of the person who lives at the address under suspicion.

In short, aslong as you have no physical trail leading to your door which can be used against you in a court of law, the licensing racket have no power over you.

[Bloodeagle]

What does the T.V. License buy you, a rite to watch television transmissions? :confused:

[SaxonCeorl]

How did they know it was in your building but not know where it was? Sounds to me like they just made that up as an excuse to search the building.

I don't know really, I just assumed they could trace the television signal. He didn't actually come in my room I don't think. I don't remember it so well because his knocking on the door is what woke me up and I was a bit groggy. I just found the whole thing to be amusing...television enforcement :D I'm not sure if they ever found the miscreant television-watcher or not.

I was 20 at the time and wouldn't have known anything about American search and seizure law let alone British search and seizure law.

[SwordoftheVistula]

What does the T.V. License buy you, a rite to watch television transmissions? :confused:

Yes, basically. It's a tax on everyone that owns a TV set and used to pay for the BBC. Owning a TV set without paying the fee is illegal, even if you never watch the BBC.