Re:Response to Google open letter
by throwaway45349 on Monday August 17, 2020 @10:04AM
(#24187309)
The actual org is small, but it's caused thousands to pull their license fee, which is no small sum of money for the Beeb. It's not like they're rolling in profit.
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Re:Response to Google open letter
by asdfasgasdgasdg on Monday August 17, 2020 @10:19AM
(#24187477)
There are around 65 million UK residents. Even if thousands pull their license fee it's not gonna move the needle that much. And if it did move the needle, I suspect the government would address the issue by enforcing the license fee more aggressively, or by doing the sensible thing and funding the BBC via the general fund.
Re:Response to Google open letter
by throwaway45349 on Monday August 17, 2020 @04:41PM
(#24191786)
They can't legally enforce it because the BBC guy has no special power to inspect your telly set and it's not technically a tax (as long as you don't consume BBC content). They also include YouTube/iPlayer consumption of BBC so it's unenforceable on a technical level too.
They've tried to scare people into compliance since the 50s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van