MarkDennehy
Established Member
TV licences (and the broadcast radio licences everyone forgets) were originally - and still are today - a licence to possess equipment that uses the electromagnetic spectrum. Which is a state resource and so can be controlled and taxed by the state. That's how it works pretty much everywhere (though how it's controlled does get influenced by international treaties by necessity).DiscoStu":2x0nrtqa said:
This new direction the licence is taking in the UK (and over here in Ireland as well), is away from charging for a licence for a state resource and towards being a tax on using the internet.
Not exactly wise in this day and age, when one of the few industries that is doing reasonably well through the still-not-yet-over-thanks recession is the IT industry which is obviously critically dependant on internet infrastructure (not just backbones, but the last mile too for people who work from home); and when so many other small businesses use the net for advertising and sales.
