As broadcasters, I used to value the BBC highly, but since they accepted the role of TV Licensing Authority, their supplementary activities as tax collectors and law enforcers have cost them my respect.

Richard Waterman, Leeds,

Owning a television does NOT mean you have to have a licence. Only the receipt or recording of live broadcasts requires a fee (as the article makes clear).

I do not have a licence as I do not watch broadcasts. I use a PC all the time - it is essential that people like me don't end up paying a fee.

Maryon Jeane, Shrewsbury, England

The mighty BBC has admitted on a BBC blog that they will push for an internet licence once enough people use their internet services. It's about time this liberal/left mouth peice was left to it's own devices instead of forcing the whole country to fund it

John, Salford, England

The future of ALL information, whether TV, music, books, newspapers, video etc is the Net. The BBC is a greedy complacent dinosaur grown fat on coercion, and I have no intention of giving it my cash.
surfthechannel.com!

dirk bruere, Bedford, england

When they extend the TV licence to Internet-enabled computers then it becomes a flat-rate Household Information Tax.

M Goldsmith, Otley, England

BBC shoots itself in foot again. Millions around the world would pay a reasonable subscription for Iplayer viewing, but they are blocked. Even when I was PAYING the licence fee, I couldn't view it from abroad. The trouble is BBC has become addicted to their tax-and-threaten funding system.

George Edwards, Cuevas de San Marcos, Spain

Broadcasting will probably be reduced to sports and news. Everything else is more convenient online.
The BBC has a perfectly good business model, which is to make online content free at the point of viewing, funded by a tax on viewers. All that is needed is a redefinition of the term "television".

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

I don't own a television and so don't have a licence - but I do use the bbc iplayer. I'd have no objection to paying a subscription fee for the service - but they'd need to sort out the poor loading, frequent crashes and complete lack of proper buffering first.

Emma, horsham,

What the TV Licensing authority cannot comprehend, so stuck in the past as it is, is that increasing numbers of people have given up on live broadcast television altogether. It has become increasingly marginalised by other information and entertainment media, so the BBC will demand a PC tax next.

Paul, Coventry,

How to dodge your licence fee? Don't be stupid enough to buy a television in the first place...

Abdul Majeed, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK

I have been threatened with dire consequences by TV Licencing for owning a computer and/or a mobile phone ! They just cannot understand the concept that I donot want or own a TV .
They are just a load of bullies constantly threatening to intervue me under caution and search my premises .

roscoe, Luton,Beds.., england

The BBC doesn't offer only repeats on its web site, it includes links to live TV programmes (with huge clickable areas in some cases). So, thanks to the BBC, people using computers in unlicensed premises can unintentionally and without warning find themselves criminals.

Joe, East Sussex, England

The cynical might think that the BBC had deliberately brought in the iPlayer as part of a long-term strategy to prop-up and expand the reach of the licence fee to PCs. Instead, why not invite iPlayer users to buy an annual subscription of £20, reduced to £15 if they have a direct debit for 3 years?

Martin Barley, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

"It also believes that the licence-fee law could be changed if evasion became widespread."
Translation: the BBC and TVL will lobby for a computer-ownership tax and a nice cut of the profits with the government. Concerned?

J Marshall, Morston,

Do it like here in Germany -- declare personal computers (even servers, without a monitor) a "new type of receiving set" and collect TV broadcasting fees for them. This is not a joke.

Matt, Berlin, Germany

Emigrate. Here in Japan, paying the NHK (Japan's BBC) licence fee is optional.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

Maybe BBC UK could recoup lost licensing income by inserting commercial content into the repeats shown on iplayer?

Not only would give them a taste of what we see on BBC Canada , but what BBC UK would become without the licence income eliminating the need for commercial content.

Robin Fuller, Shawville, Canada