Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TV detector van

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 345 posts

Re: TV detector van

#151

Post by dylan604 »

jrjarrett wrote: post #132
monkeynotes wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ads were hugely dystopian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw I am an ex-pat and as an adult I am have become quite disillusioned with the UK and glad to have gotten out a decade ago. I miss nothing about England except my friends, and I'd feel sorry for them, but they all seem mostly happy with life. Paying a license to have a TV (and it's assumed you must watch TV), opt in porn on the internet, CCTV ev…

I don't know where you moved to, but is the US anything admirable lately? Guess I should cross the UK off the list of places to flee to.

I was just thinking about the grass isn't always greener kind of situation. Everyone hopes somewhere else is going to (have to?) be better than here. Where ever there/here actually are.

Re: TV detector van

#152

Post by pacaro »

beenBoutIT wrote: post #127
umvi wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US no one cares if you buy a TV and set up some rabbit ears or whatever you want with it, especially not the government

The only things we (Americans) allow our government to exercise that amount of control over are psychoactive drugs/plants and female reproductive rights. With things like AR15s or TVs we require unfettered access with no paper trail, but if you want Adderall you'll need 3-sheet triplicate DEA forms and it's a federal crime in all 50 states to possess a growing number of naturally occurring plants and fungi.

Not to mention lawn darts or kinder eggs

Re: TV detector van

#153

Post by criddell »

dsr_ wrote: post #103
FireBeyond wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To look in your open window, even with a telescope? I don't think that is considered illegal.

In California, Penal Code 647(j): (1) A person who looks through a hole or opening, into, or otherwise views, by means of any instrumentality, including, but not limited to, a periscope, telescope, binoculars, camera, motion picture camera, camcorder, or mobile phone, the interior of a bedroom, bathroom, changing room, fitting room, dressing room, or tanning booth, or the interior of any other area in which the occup…

If it's just a sensor on the other end of the telescope then it's not a person.

Re: TV detector van

#154

Post by dylan604 »

tantalor wrote: post #71
Scoundreller wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like typical legal stances on breathalyzers, speed cameras and red light cameras.

A bad breathalyzer can be challenged in court as "not scientifically reliable". https://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/08/22/ju...

At first I read "bad breathalyzer" as one that tells you to use mouthwash, and not as the assumed intended bad=bogus wording.

Re: TV detector van

#155

Post by throwaway456zzy »

bcaa7f3a8bbc wrote: post #64
noodlesUK wrote: post #13

This is such nonsense. In my opinion the BBC should be paid for by a proper tax, as an informed public benefits everyone, or they should just give up on calling it a license. The people going around houses just send threatening letters, and act as though they have some right to enter your home and inspect it (they don't). They go around terrorising people who don't know their rights, but don't watch TV anyway. I rout…

It's not only the UK. After the war, Japan used BBC as a model for the national broadcasting media, and the NHK essentially copied the same BBC TV license policy, including its aggressive attempts to collect TV fees (although the NHK doesn't have TV detector vans...) It has been challenged in courts but the verdict, just like the BBC, is that the fee is mandatory if you watch TV.

In Japan you only have to pay if you have a device with a working TV tuner, this includes car navigation systems with broadcast TV tuners (there are lots of these in Japan!) However, the BBC rule of watching live TV on any device appears to be a completely different test of legality to Japan.

Interestingly enough ‘NHK Kara Kokumin Wo Mamoru Tou’ (The ‘Protect Citizenry from NHK’ Party) won a seat in Japanese parliament at the recent national election!

Be it Japan or UK, it is quite the anachronism to mandate enforcement of even a government broadcaster’s business model. Doing so regardless of how much use or benefit you get, makes it a sort of regressive tax.

Re: TV detector van

#156

Post by mrec »

amaccuish wrote: post #101
mrec wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be replying to the wrong comment; I never mentioned "backlash". Less popular, less relevant, less trusted, yes.

I think they were shortening your words "It used to be the case that anyone criticizing the BBC was downvoted to oblivion" to "backlash". Also I haven't heard about the BBC becoming less popular, do you have any evidence for this? As far as I recall, BBC 1 is still the nation's favourite channel. It would be interesting to know how you voted in the EU referendum, as I tend to find this sort of anti-BBC-ness the great…

No, that sentence was about a strong pro-BBC sentiment; goldcd's "backlash" is about a hypothetical anti-BBC one.

I stopped owning a TV way back in 2004, specifically out of disgust at the BBC piling in to the property bubble insanity along with everyone else. If that's what "noncommercial" buys you, I don't really see the point.

And I think the drift is less about the popularity of BBC TV channels versus non-BBC TV channels, than about the move to streaming and other Internet versus TV in general.

Re: TV detector van

#157

Post by dylan604 »

gambiting wrote: post #135
Balgair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also remember the coin operated tellys. Yes, every 6 months or there abouts the coiny-telly man would come about to collect the coins. It was a real hassle, as you had to be at your flat all that day. Otherwise, the coiny-telly man would just pass you up. Thing was, the little bin that the coins fell into would fill up every 9 months or so. So, if the coiny-telly man passed you up, you'd have to ration when you cou…

I honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.

Black Mirror is amazing because of this. I absolutely love British humor or is it humour?

Re: TV detector van

#158

Post by criddell »

rtkwe wrote: post #29
oxidising wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We pay the licence fee to fund the BBC. They make some amazing documentaries (Planet Earth, Blue Planet etc). They also have radio stations, all advert free. Being advert free is rare these days.

That's fine, a well funded public broadcaster is a great idea. The question is why in the world is it done as a license fee instead of as a much simpler to implement tax or a subscription where the OTA broadcasts are encrypted and a fee is paid to maintain the ability to decrypt.

The current system was started after WWII (I think), so keep that in mind. If they were rolling it out today, it probably would be implemented differently.

Re: TV detector van

#159

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

tantalor wrote: post #16
agurk wrote: post #7

I lived in a flat in England in the early 2000s which kept getting letters from the BBC saying we didn't have a TV licence. The letters were sometimes more threatening for a period, then sometimes more reconciliatory. They were also running TV adverts at the time claiming they had detector vans about, and if you didn't have a licence you'd be caught. I did some research at the time, and it seemed that evidence from a…

> evidence from a detector van had never been submitted How could it be, if the mechanism behind the detector is not made public? Prosecutor: This machine says you are guilty. Defendant: How does that machine work? Prosecutor: You aren't allowed to know. Defendant: ??? Judge: Case dismissed.

That's what parallel construction is for!

Re: TV detector van

#160

Post by sandbags »

agurk wrote: post #7

I lived in a flat in England in the early 2000s which kept getting letters from the BBC saying we didn't have a TV licence. The letters were sometimes more threatening for a period, then sometimes more reconciliatory. They were also running TV adverts at the time claiming they had detector vans about, and if you didn't have a licence you'd be caught. I did some research at the time, and it seemed that evidence from a…

If memory serves from when I used to work for a retailer (some 30 years ago now) we were required to submit the name & address of anyone who rented/bought a TV. I think they just tallied this list against their database.
Post reply on HN