Date   : Thu, 28 Feb 2002 11:25:51 -0000
From   : "John Richardson" <j.m.richardson@...>
Subject: The License Fee (change the name, and we're back on topic)

The argument about the license fee is generating more heat than light. I'm a
massive fan of the BBC myself, and although there are many anomalies in the
license fee, I'd rather have an unfair anachronistic system that produces
(some) good original programmes, rather than one that gives us yet more of
the same (rubbish).

BUT my main point. Isn't it amusing that we are arguing about this? One of
the (unforeseeable) consequences of the license fee and the huge resources
it gives the BBC is public service projects of the scale of The Computer
Literacy Project which gave us the....

...BBC micro! I know BBC enterprises eventually made a lot of money from the
association but they can't have expected to at the start. The BBC micro
would not have gained the cult following it did without the backing and
exposure the BBC gave what would otherwise have been the Acorn Proton.

And we wouldn't have had MODE 7 without the Beeb! Didn't even the text only
MODE 6 use up 10K? That's 9K not available for all those text-only programs.

None of which is an argument for the license fee of course. But an
unforeseen consequence that should be dear to the heart of this group...


John
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John Richardson

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