Many of us have come in contact with Brittish consumer technology from time to time (things like phones and TVs), and we may have wondered, "why does this so profoundly suck?" The roots of techno-suck may be hinted at by Brittish policies such as TV licensing:

The BBC television license is a UK anachronism which would bemuse the citizens of most countries of the world. The BBC is State television, but State television which is run by an elite nebulous clique rather than directly by the government of the day (which fortunately changes often enough not to get entrenched). The BBC is funded mainly by the television license, which is just over 100 pounds per year for anyone who uses a (colour) TV, whether or not the BBC is ever watched. Even people who do not have TVs would probably prefer to have the BBC funded from general taxation. If you do not use a TV, and so do not need a license, you are often harrassed by the TV licensing authority, who do not believe you ("surely everybody must watch TV in this day and age"). To pay 100 pounds of extra general (e.g. income or sales) tax every year is surely better than being harrassed by the State.

Canada has similar (though much weaker) techno-suck laws: I am not allowed, for example, to build my own satellite dish and see what I can hear with it. They call that "stealing a satellite signal." All dishes in Canada must be licensed. I have always had a visceral disgust for the notion that someone can bathe me, 24 hours a day, in my home and at work, in a battery of electromagnetic signals, and then have the nerve to say it's "stealing" if I want to have a look at that signal without PAYING THEM for the privelege of "viewing it." Policies like this raise very grave questions about what "technology" is and who is allowed to benefit from it. As far as I'm concerned, when you send something out into the air, it isn't yours any more. No one is ENTITLED to profit from the LIMITATIONS of others. Just because I couldn't detect this or that signal when you started transmitting it doesn't mean I have no right to it.