Gus wrote:[TV liceincing said that i would still have to pay as i had the ability to RECEIVE and thats what you pay for.
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!! You pay TO receive not to have the ABILITY to receive.
I have a TV. It sits there nowadays for the odd occasion I fancy watching a DVD or playing a console game without having to bother hooking anything up to the projector - or when it's too bright to use the projector. I don't think terrestrial TV is worth the £90/year license (or however much it costs) and cable/sky ain't worth an extra £30 or so a month on top of that. That's a drinking session a month!
As long as I don't use the TV (or anything else) to watch TV, then there's nothing illegal. However the lying thieving bastards at TV Licensing will still try to do you for it. It has been known for them to enter houses under search warrant, plug in an aerial, and take a photo of the telly as "evidence". Thankfully the person I know who had it happen to them (they weren't at home at the time), had a webcam recording as a security device so they had evidence to show they were being set up.
If you decide you don't like telly any more, they WILL get a search warrant quickly (I got mine in a previous house in under 24 hours), and if you haven't disconnected the aerial or got any portable sets out of the house, they'll sue you even if you haven't done anything wrong. They had 2 more warrants issued against me in the 18 months following the first too, as well as countless knocks on the door and people peering through my letterbox/windows (often
before knocking!). Reason for suspected crime? "Does not hold a current Television License". Sickening.
<steve_earwig> I think this forum is more about keeping our cars going with minimal outlay than giving our cars more reason to go bang