BBC Criticized For Snooping Under RIPA Powers 183
judgecorp writes "The BBC and other UK public bodies have been criticized for excessive and secretive use of snooping powers granted under RIPA (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act). The act allows the BBC and other to request information on suspected criminals, but it has been over-used, and used covertly according to critics. From the article: 'The BBC said it had not been secretive about how it was using RIPA powers. “The BBC uses Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act for the detection of television licence evasion alone,” a spokesperson said. “It is only used as a last resort once other enforcement methods have been exhausted.The reason we do not release more details on how and when it is used is to ensure people without a valid TV licence don’t use this information to their advantage when attempting to avoid detection.”'"
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, and in return, you have one or several channels that are rely less on advertising resources for their survival. You also get news that is written more by real journalists and less by corporate bullies with political agendas (yes, I'm talking about Fox)... while still be independant from their government. You also get shows and other stuff that would not be considered mainstream enough to make money... Some countries decide that it's worth it to have some sort of tax on everybody to promote/create/garantee that sort of stuff. You have the right to disagree of course.
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Only if you want off-air or live streaming. The BBC provides about a dozen advert-free channels of high-quality programming, and dozens of ad-free radio stations..
Compare this with the state of TV in the US, where you pay about the same amount of money (or more, depending on your cable or satellite provider) to watch ten minutes of adverts with two minutes of programme in between.
Re:Inflammatory much? (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, this is about the general level of intelligence one expects on the subject, first raising stuff that happened hundreds of years ago to no one in living memory, then claiming some irrelevant current affairs come into it, and then claiming that not liking racism against your fellow countrymen is "nationalism", when the sad fact is that it's US nationalism that causes them to believe that *all* countries are inherently inferior (which does at least explain US foreign policy).
Re:Inflammatory much? (Score:2, Insightful)
Your example kind of argues against your point.
You do know why Assange is hiding in Ecuador, don't you? HINT: He's not afraid of "special rendition" to Weston-Super-Mare.
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:5, Insightful)
This. The BBC has been a mindless lapdog since Hutton.
Interestingly, under the much more authoritarian Thatcher, it remained a thorn in the government's side. (It required a decades or two to remove all the activist management and gradually replace them with stooges.)
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you think we haven't thought of funding through direct taxation?
To be very blunt, I think your country is insane for letting the BBC have that kind of power over you. And yes, I don't think your country has thought about it. Else they would be funded differently.
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Insightful? Really? How many cc tvs were operating under Thatcher? How many ASBO's were issued during Thatcher's time as PM? Oh, wait, only right wing authoritarianism is bad, left wing is ok.
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wonders of the Universe.
Everything & Nothing.
Chemistry: A volatile history.
Planet earth.
The frozen planet.
Science & Islam.
The majority of the UK population thinks: global warming is a massive environmental disaster, that we're all descended from a common ancestor, and that the earth has been around for a few billion years more than the bible claims. The quality of the BBC's programming is largely to thank for that, and so i'm happy to continue paying my license fee. Compare any of the above programs with the typical output of 'the history channel', and I think you'll quickly change your opinion about the program quality.
Re:In the UK you pay for the right to watch TV ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well unlike any time in the last 90 years, maybe they'll think about it now due to your post.
I'm not usually that sarcastic, but the arrogance in your post is staggering. Because their decision is different from yours, rather than thinking that maybe they arrived at the decision based on different priorities or values or something else you're missing, you assert that an entire country of millions of people hasn't seriously thought about the license fee since it was implemented in 1922. Do you realize that you're implying that the currently-living 62 million people, and all the people before them, were just shit-chucking apes who couldn't make their own decisions correctly? And that's not a rhetorical question.
I suggest that you at least consider the possibility that other people did really come to the right decision for them, even if it's not the right one for you. I live in the US, and frankly I'd gladly pay the license fee for quality news and programming live, rather than catching the scraps over here.