[Gllug] BBC Open Source

[Sean Burlington]

David Damerell wrote:
> On Thursday, 14 Jul 2005, Sean Burlington wrote:
> 
>>On Thursday 14 Jul 2005 12:43 pm, David Damerell wrote:
>>>[Also, you can't go to prison for not paying the TV License; you can
>>>only go to prison for not paying the fine assessed for not paying the
>>>License. A subtle distinction but a real one.]
>>
>>What difference does this make to the family destryed for the license fee?
> 
> 
> It makes a big difference to someone who can afford the fine (and the
> fee) but decided not to pay it, because they don't go to prison. An
> example of such a person might be someone who decided to boycott the
> license fee, as in the discussion here.

>(b)  Boycotting the license fee may remove you from circulation. I once
>>heard that the majority of female prisoners in the UK were prosecuted
>>for TV
>>License evasion.

OK - maybe I trimmed a bit heavily - but the discussion had moved to

"the majority of female prisoners in the UK"

> 
>>If the BBC was paid for out of direct taxation would anyone be worse off?
> 
> 
> Yes; we would. Making it awkward for the Government to control the BBC
> is a great benefit of the current system (although sadly that lack of
> control has been eroded to a degree); anything that replaced the
> current hypothecated tax would have to be carefully constructed.
> 

I'm not sure that the BBC are all that independent

on the other hand - most of the harm of the current system could be
removed simply by providing some income based cut off point for the
current tax

-- 

Sean
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