Sweden to impose licence fees to computer owners

“Sweden’s television licensing agency Radiotjänst is preparing to push through measures requiring computer owners to pay the annual television license fee of around 2,000 kronor ($327). The move comes just days after Swedish Television (SVT) announced plans to begin broadcasting all its programs live on the internet. “It is our interpretation that a computer may be considered a licensable piece of equipment if an entire channel’s scheduled programming is available over the internet,” said Anna Pettersson, CEO of Radiotjänst.”

This is another pragmatic indication that TV is being substituted by our computers for what it used to offer, and obviously, more. In addition, I wonder if this is going to be embraced by other countries as well. For example, in Greece the fee for the Public Television (EPT) is included in the bills of the Public Power Corporation (ΔΕΗ), should one expect that in the future an additional fee will be introduced for computers ? Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised…

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Greeks, one of the world’s most weird species…

Browsing the news today early in the morning before going to work, i came across the following article (in Greek).
The short story is that the Greek parliament has a debt of 34,000,000 € coming from the phone calls that its 300 members have made since the year 2000. This means that each member of the parliament since that year has cost to the Greek citizen 10,000 € / year, and that is only for their excesses on telephone calls (let alone the other privileges they benefit). This amount is said to be paid under an arrangement with the Greek Telecom (OTE) in ten installments.
Eating my cereal, I couldn’t help comparing the Greek public servant to the Swedish one, along with the accompanied reactions. In Sweden, ministers resign (or are forced to resign) for taxation frauds (read here) or not paying their annual television fee (that’s obligatory, read here). Furthermore, they are strongly criticized for paying their cleaner cash-in-hand (read here) or for taking advantage of their position in any aspect even when it comes to transportation (read here).

I really keep wondering who is making fun of whom in Greece, and I can only repeat what i said the day after the recent Greek elections, “People get the administration they deserve“, and this applies to all 300 members of the Greek parliament. To some large extend they are reflecting how the Greek society functions today…