December 10, 1993. A day that will live in infamy for me. I had been waiting for the release of Doom for many months and finally the day was here. I dialed up my modem to the Apogee Software BBS and got through on the first try! Oh joy! I madly scrambled to find the game and started the download. About half an hour later my mother picked up the phone and I was disconnected. I couldn't believe it. After she was done with her call I madly redialed. Busy. Again I tried. Busy. And on it went for a tortuous four hours with me cursing my mother the entire time. Finally I got through, downloaded and of course was in heaven for the next several months.

After reading your post I did a bit of research into the UK's TV license - insane! It's not just that you guys have a tax but it's 136 pounds (>$270) per YEAR!? That's crazy! I don't see how people put up with that type of thing.

My favorite quote from the site regarding 'cheating' (Hello 1984!):

"...We have a fleet of detector vans, plus, our enforcement officers have access to hand-held detection devices capable of detecting a magnetic field when a TV is switched on. In fact, we catch an average of over 1,000 people watching TV without a licence every day."

From the site: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp

-NB