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Please do not write below the line

(www.bbctvlicence.com)
313 points dcminter | 3 comments | 21 Oct 24 18:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.543s | source
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cooper_ganglia ◴[21 Oct 24 19:34 UTC] No.41907633[source]▶
A "TV License" is one of those things I alway assumed people were making up to satirize the claims of over-regulation & bureaucracy in the UK.

Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.

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Zak ◴[21 Oct 24 19:38 UTC] No.41907684[source]▶
Many European countries are worse about it than the UK; even people who do not own a television are required by law to pay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

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alvarlagerlof ◴[21 Oct 24 19:45 UTC] No.41907763[source]▶
In Sweden there was this whole thing where you apparently had to pay even if you only owned a laptop.
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eastbound ◴[21 Oct 24 20:29 UTC] No.41908209[source]▶
In France you pay the copyright infringement tax on every hard drive / SSD / storage you purchase. But it’s still forbidden to pirate movies.
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1. AshamedCaptain ◴[21 Oct 24 21:31 UTC] No.41908719[source]▶
It is not "copyright infringement" tax. It's called a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy and it's a rather common thing, at least in all of Europe.
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2. crazygringo ◴[21 Oct 24 23:45 UTC] No.41909727[source]▶
Seems close enough. The article even discusses how it is "often considered a compensation for illegal file sharing". And even if it's common, that doesn't make it any less unfair. (Indeed, the longest section of the article is titled "Questions on fairness".)
3. mr_toad ◴[22 Oct 24 04:39 UTC] No.41911247[source]▶
I read that as “Pirate” copying levy. Took a few takes to read it as “Private”.