It's not obvious to me from the article whether a separate license is required for every set in a household or rather just a single license for each household possessing one or more sets. Can anyone please edit accordingly? Also, what about computers with a tv card? I assume they would be considered TV sets. What about streaming tv programming via internet? Would that be a statutory tv set for purposes of licensure? Thanks.
I had an edit conflict and then noticed you took my US$ approximation out of the page. Do you think a Euro approximation would be more internationally known? --Chuck Smith
Just an oversight on my part. There was a 3-way edit conflict, and I missed the $values when merging them. -- User:GWO
United States section is NOT correct.
"presumably proved to the American government" implies that it was considered and a decision was made not to do it. Really it should say "In the United States, a TV license would most likely be illegal under the Constitution" or something to that effect. You don't have to be American; unlike England, our Constitution is written down. Observe, http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution_transcript.html and http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html Most Americans can recite their rights under the Constitution. Speech, religion, privacy, a fair trial by jury of one's peers, etc.Also, as to the part saying that Americans would be opposed to it, I do obviously agree that we would be opposed, but I don't agree that there is confusion as to what "license" means. Askoxford.com is a service from the same people (Oxford University Press I belive?) who publish the Oxford English Dictionary and hence is quite authoritative; setting it to the UK view, looking up license yields the following:
"licence
(US license)
• noun 1 a permit from an authority to own or use something, do a particular thing, or carry on a trade. 2 a writer’s or artist’s conventional freedom to deviate from facts or accepted rules. 3 freedom to behave without restraint.
— ORIGIN Latin licentia ‘freedom, licentiousness’, from licere ‘be lawful or permitted’."
So, now we look at the wikipedia entry for TV license and find the following "A television licence (or more correctly broadcast receiver licence, as it usually also pays for public radio) is an official licence required in many countries for all owners of television and radio receivers." So, clearly, under the above Oxford definition of license, a TV license is just that. It's not a "service fee" because if you don't want to watch the BBC you still have to pay Her Majesty for permission to use said device. In other words, if I am not mistaken, there is no legal way to own and operate a television set in Britain without permission of Her Majesty, for which said monarch charges a fee (yes, I know that in practice Her Majesty delegates this stuff to the Parliament, but the authority dervies from her so my language is correct). This whole pretense is contrary to the spirit and letter of the Constitution of the United States.
Let me explain: It's your property, on your land, it cannot interfere with the rights of others, therefore, under the US Constitution, the government has no authority to grant or deny you permission to use it. You ALREADY have permission. You were BORN with the right to do it. This should be reflected in the wikipedia article. It's not because we disagree about what a license is. It is that Americans do not believe the government has the right to do it, and our Constitution supports this belief.
This would also fall under Amendment 10 (all these parts of the Constitution are equally the Supreme Law of the Land), "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." In other words, in America, if the Constitution doesn't say you don't have the right, and no other law which does not conflict with the constitution prevents it, you probably do have it. There was no law preventing Scaled Composites from putting a man into space, so they automatically had permission, in America, to do so. There was no law preventing NBC from transmitting television waves, so they automatically had permisison. Not like this silliness in Britain where only the BBC was allowed to transmit for some time. In America, until the government regulates a given act, it is assumed to be legal under the 10th amendment. Maybe that's where the confusion is coming from in foreign countries.
btw I talk to this British guy who is living and working in Florida on the internet. He says he is glad not to have to pay a TV license for permission to watch his TV, and likes to brag about it to his friends back in England. I would never want to live in Red State Florida, though, where they voted for Bush in 2004...--Brian71.116.106.31 03:44, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
the great nation of the United States of America
What I wrote in that section is NOT nonsense. It is the TRUTH. We don't have tv licenses because we are not a socialist nation where the government is allowed to control everything. What was written there before was the nonsense. The absense of TV licenses is not because it has been "proven to the government" that they are not necessary, but rather because IT WOULD BE A VIOLATION OF OUR WRITTEN CONSTITUTION for the government to require them. As I said it would be a violation of the 1st and 4th Amendments, not to mention the 14th, to try to force people to pay a fee to own a television. Furthermore, Americans would NEVER stand for that, as we proved in 1776 when we threw Britain out of our country by force. So no, I didn't put nonsense, I *CORRECTED* the nonsense that was there.--Brian71.116.106.31 21:50, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
The 4th amendment reads thus:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
THAT is the reason why we don't have TV licenses. It would be illegal. The communist, anti-American bias on Wikipedia is really stupid and is the reason why wikipedia will never be as credible as a real encyclopedia like The Columbia Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Britannica. The reason one reads an encyclopedia is because of the editors. That's why you pay for it. It's worth money. Oh no I advocated CAPITALISM!!! I must be evil. btw I voted for John Kerry.
--Brian (Same brian as above)71.116.106.31 21:55, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
Kiand, take your communist/anti-American bias elsewhere if you want wikipedia to be taken seriously. --Brian71.116.106.31 22:20, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
His Ryanness, do you mean to imply that what was written in the United States section before I edited it, which was highly offensive to Americans, was without bias??? The unbiased truth is that we don't have tv licenses because they would be a violation of our Constitution. Not to mention that Americans would vote out every Congressman who voted for such a law, as well as the President if he didn't try to veto. --Brian71.116.106.31 22:24, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
Americas
The article currently says that licenses are less common in the Americas but faills to show anywhere in the Americas that they are required. Is there anywhere or should this read "common in Europe...but not used in the Americas."? Rmhermen 18:50, Mar 3, 2005 (UTC)
Clarification
The British overseas territories are regarded by the UK as separate countries, entirely responsible for broadcasting in those jurisdictions. Not surprisingly, those of them in North America, follow the North American model - Bermuda's three channels are affiliated with the three main US networks. I suspect that the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are much the same, as their relationship with the Netherlands is much looser than that of the French Overseas Departments with France.
Only Gibraltar has a TV licence fee, for GBC, which used to rebroadcast BBC Prime, with residents needing to get a set top box for the privilege. Most people watch SkyDigital via communal set-ups, including all the UK terrestrial channels, even though they aren't entitled to as Gibraltar is considered as foreign as Spain from the point of view of UK broadcasting rights.
St Helena gets a mix of programming from M-Net in South Africa. Falkland Islanders have cable TV - they're lucky that BFBS doesn't confine its TV signal to the military bases, or scramble it. Montserrat is not uninhabitable, people have moved back there, and watch satellite TV, including BBC World, but pay no licence fee. Hardly anybody lives in Pitcairn , South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, much less has TV. Quiensabe 01:52 UTC
Also the part about the reason why we don't have a TV license in the United States is completely wrong. The reason is the 4th Amendment, part of the Constitution, which is the ruling document of the United States. We do not have a King; we are ruled by Laws, not by nobles, and the government "derives its just powers from the consent of the governed", as is stated in the Declaration of Independence. History has proven that the ideas of Hamilton and Jefferson were superior to the idea of a monarchy.
The 4th Amendment is as follows:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search
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