I can see all of the busy minds already at work. How do we devise a gadget that hides the fact that you are connected to the internet. How on earth could they police this. Simply owning a PC would not be the issue, it would be when the internet was accessed. Just how many ISPs are there right now? And if you tried eMail for two months and then found it wasn't for you? And if you are over 75 - do those people still get free PC licenses like they do free TV licenses? My feeling is that this is an urban legend. Like the idea that people were going to be charged per minute for using eMail. I am sure that any PM/President would love to find a way to do this, but they will need to lock up all of the hackers first! ---- Peter Amsden, Argyll, Scotland ASAT Productions: http://www.asat.biz Researching Amsden World Wide Outline History: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~amsden Books I have written: http://www.btinternet.com/~amsden AllExperts: http://www.allexperts.com/displayExpert.asp?Expert=38044 Never dump originals - they may be all that is left after the computer age. > -----Original Message----- > From: TebbuA@aol.com [mailto:TebbuA@aol.com] > Sent: 21 March 2005 12:14 > To: SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [SoG] Something more to worry about! > > Those of you who have read the latest ed'n of Computer Active ( March 2005, > page 7 ) will no doubt be alarmed by gov't proposals to licence PCs. This > came to light in the recent green paper on the BBC's charter. It seems that > we > are downloading too much from the BBC for free and are making it too > difficult > to collect licence fees. ( What happened to all those lads in vans hiding > around the corner? ) The proposal is to charge the same as the TV licence > fee > sometime after the renewal of the BBC's charter in 2006. Think about the > implications for business and education, let alone our researches. As these > things are > not dreamt up overnight we can now perhaps understand why Mr Blair was so > keen, a couple of years ago, that we should all have internet access! > Don't forget The Medal Cards! Mike Tebbutt. >

In message of 21 Mar, Peter Amsden <amsden@btinternet.com> wrote: > I can see all of the busy minds already at work. How do we devise a gadget > that hides the fact that you are connected to the internet. > > How on earth could they police this. Simply owning a PC would not be the > issue, it would be when the internet was accessed. Just how many ISPs are > there right now? And if you tried eMail for two months and then found it > wasn't for you? And if you are over 75 - do those people still get free PC > licenses like they do free TV licenses? > > My feeling is that this is an urban legend. Like the idea that people were > going to be charged per minute for using eMail. > > I am sure that any PM/President would love to find a way to do this, but > they will need to lock up all of the hackers first! I agree that this is little more than an urban legennd. If there were real difficulty in collecting the BBC's income from TV licences, then the simplest answer would be to allow it to collect income from sponsors. This would save all of us the licence fee each year, none of which ends up as government revenue so the government would not lose out either. Indeed and as well the red tape in our existences would diminish marginally. Can't be bad. -- Tim Powys-Lybbe tim@powys.org For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org