The BBC

Reverting to a slightly less serious topic, television piracy has created an issue that I need to get off my chest. Just recently two individuals were prosecuted here at the University of Arizona for downloading music illegally. Despite there being a perfectly legal download site available to us students, they chose not to use it, and the industry's waxing and waning happened to fall badly for the pair. Needless to say, this does make you think twice when you click that button. However, allow me to divulge my own situation. Being a non-resident of America (having a permanent citizenship in the United Kingdom) I pay a TV license fee that enables me to legally watch the BBC on television and take advantage of all the other online, radio, and multimedia benefits. Yet when I travel abroad, the BBC assumes that I'm a foreigner and, therefore, withdraws some of its services. For example, if I want to listen to the next England match on BBC Radio 5, I can't because it doesn't fall under the free service bracket that the BBC provides. Everyone recognises the World Service and other international delights, yet when I want to stream an episode of Match of the Day, or The Apprentice, I can't. What's more, given the time of year, I'm currently missing the wonder of the World Championship Snooker at Sheffield. How awful, I'm sure you'd agree. And so, this forces me to illegal download sites (namely torrents), which allow me to download via peer-to-peer networks. I feel perfectly justified in doing so, and I couldn't see how anyone would argue otherwise. Yet what I propose is an identification system for travelling British citizens. Surely the BBC has the technology to identify licence-paying customers whenever they travel abroad with a simple log-in registration online. In this way, through my computer I could access all the joys of television, radio, etc. from my current position. Tell a friend.