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Eyes on the prize: Ten 23-24-inch monitors for under £150

Ogi

I only know because years ago, when I decided to ditch watching TV, I had to deal with the TV licensing guys. Their argument was because I bought a "TV" that had a receiver (i.e. the "capability to receive broadcast TV"), I intended to use it to receive broadcast TV and have to pay the TV licence.

I guess it makes sense, otherwise anybody could just buy a TV, not pay the licence by claiming "Look! I don't intend to watch broadcast TV. I did not hook it up to an antenna" and then just plug it in when the TV licensing guys go away.

In the end, I took a Dremel to my TV's tuner to physically turn it into a dumb monitor (it has spent its entire time hooked up to my PC, or my XBMC setup), which satisfied them, and since then they have not bothered me.

I mean, yes, I could go to court and argue about what I want to do, why I don't need to pay the licence, and the precise meaning of "Intent" in this context, but it was simpler, faster, less stressful and cheaper to just disable the tuner in my TV.

Although I seem to remember them thinking of widening the licensing scope to include any internet connected computer which is capable of watching live streaming of Iplayer. Not sure if that will get through though, we will see.

I guess it depends on who you get from the TV licensing people, and how anal they are. At least this way they can't come back later and say I lied to them. The TV is no longer a TV according to their own definition.

IANAL and all that, just saying what I had to do to get them off my back :-)

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