German oberfuhrers impose TV license fee for the 'net

[Nick]

The Inquirer, (or should that be Das Inquirer?), has reported on the frankly daft idea dreamt up by the oberfuhrers in Germany to levy a license fee on every Internet capable device.

Read more, including a not at all slanted rant against those with a penchant for large suasages, in this HEXUS.lifestyle Headline.

[dave87]

They have got to pay for the Autobahns in some way I suppose

[harry1]

shocking glad we dont get stung by things like that. il just stick to parking tickets and speeding fines for my contribution to the uk

[chuckskull]

shocking glad we dont get stung by things like that. il just stick to parking tickets and speeding fines for my contribution to the uk

Yeah it'd be terrible if you had to pay a license fee for anything capable of receiving TV

[harry1]

reminds me i should sort my tv license out, bloody leeches

[Nick]

I've had a few complaints about my mocking of the Germans which, I have been informed, was in poor taste and could possibly cause offence.

I'd just like to go on record to say that there's an awful lot I like about Germany: their cars, their lack of speed limits on the autobahns, their penchant for annexing Austria at every opportunity and that fact that, unlike the Americans, they were bang on time for two wars.

I hope this clears everything up.

[chuckskull]

unlike the Americans, they were bang on time for two wars.

[Steven W]

They do an incredible sausage. I also like the aggression displayed by the big beefy beer carriers in the beer halls.

They were grunting as they knocked people over left right and centre, whilst carrying about 10 beers...excellent.

[YorkieBen]

I've had a few complaints about my mocking of the Germans which, I have been informed, was in poor taste and could possibly cause offence.

I'd just like to go on record to say that there's an awful lot I like about Germany: their cars, their lack of speed limits on the autobahns, their penchant for annexing Austria at every opportunity and that fact that, unlike the Americans, they were bang on time for two wars.

I hope this clears everything up.

[father smurf]

nicks real name is stan boardman.

[Bob Crabtree]

The really GREAT thing is to be in Germany WITH Nick.

[5lab]

not sure why this is such a bad thing. sure, its another tax, but really, if tv is taxed, why not the internet. and its not as if money you're taxed is money 'lost' - it just gets pumped back into the economy, and 9 times out of 10, tax will drop elsewhere

[E-Penguin]

Have you seen the amount of tax in Germany already? It's only a matter of time here before you have to pay tax for air...

[Lee H]

The really GREAT thing is to be in Germany WITH Nick.

Is that with his Lederhosen's on and bright red thighs from all that slapping ?

*shudder* I hate to think

[DavidM]

Have you seen the amount of tax in Germany already? It's only a matter of time here before you have to pay tax for air...

Das ist korrekt.

[Funkstar]

not sure why this is such a bad thing. sure, its another tax, but really, if tv is taxed, why not the internet. and its not as if money you're taxed is money 'lost' - it just gets pumped back into the economy, and 9 times out of 10, tax will drop elsewhere

But you are not paying for the right to own a TV, but the right to watch the Free To Air services broadcast to it. If you use the TV for commercial reasons or for just watching DVDs etc, then there is no need to pay the license fee*. If a business is using the internet for data only as the article points out, they are paying a levie they shouldn't be.

It's like when Canada (and some other countries i think) slapped a fee on every piece or recordable media and gave the money straight to their equivelant of the RIAA and MPAA, just in case you use that media to infringe the copyright of the people they represent. So when a company backs up their word files onto CD, artists and movie producers are benefiting. To many people this makes them feel completely justified in copying music and movies as they have already payed the fees anyway.

I can see this being a moral argument for downloading TV from P2P networks in Germany. "Vee have payed fur eet now, yah?"


*I'm assuming here that Germany works the same way as here, yes i could research and see if this it true, but i'm lazy