Just read a proposed amendment to the Classification (Publication, Films and Computer Games) Amendment Bill (Terrorist Material) 2007 by Mary Anne Neilson - Law and Bills Digest Section on my desk to read.

Needless to say I am absof***inglutely gobsmacked by what I have read.

If this bill passes any and I do mean ANY game that involves any remotely similar material to "terrorism" will receive a "Refused Classification" rating and well, basically make it illegal to sell, display or even own such material.

Immediately say good bye to games like CS or Insurgency, any sort of game that "praises" a group (even historically) who engaged in hate crimes (Nazi Germany)

Oh, and by the way, only the Democrats appeared to have stood between us and this reprehensible law being brought into effect.

link

they will keep the bastards honest, or arent they doing that anymore?

they may aswell ban porn, books, music and movies while they're at it.

Hermitech what makes you say that only the Democrats can stop this going through?

Any new bill has to make it past the House of Reps and the Senate before being enacted, the Democrats have no influnce in the former and virtually none in the latter.

they may aswell ban porn, books, music and movies while they're at it.

Agreed.

Games have as much a chance at making anyone terrorists as most other forms of media do.

From what I read in the bill only the Democrats oppose it
It's only about 16 pages but it's scary s***. I'll see if I can find the online link to it.

It's been through the House of Reps and was in the Senate last night. The only thing left for it is for the Attorney General to sign off on it.

Next games like The Sims will be banned unless all the 'sims' go to church every sunday, holster Christian names. Wear a clearly identifiable gold cross around their neck and live in a perfect christian utopia ideation.

Loki, your example would be called what they refer to as an "Advocate of an Ideology" which is just as bad as being a Terrorist.

It's such a s*** law with such HUGE potential for misuse.

but what about the childrens?

I hope Al Qaeda don't wise up to the fact that you can run faster with a knife ...

Told a mate serving in Iraq

This is hilarious to me. And I'll tell you why. I've spent some time in Iraq with this being my second tour... and THERE ARE NO f***IN VIDEO GAMES OVER HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in case anyone missed it, I updated the original with a link to said document

well that's going to say goodbye to just about every game ever made except perhaps need for speed, flight sims could be used as terrorist flight training, grand theft auto could teach you how to steal a car and run into stuff to blow it up, the obvious cs/insurgency, what about unreal tournament? That was a shooting game but I don't think there were any terrorist elements in it.

What is this? f***ing Nazi germany? Start burning those books people.

No it's worse
It's like Jack Thompson has taken over the Aussie Govt

lucky ive had enuff of ww2 fps huh?

theoretically if these games were to be insta-banned it would make something like steam insta-gay. no hard copy ftl

learn to read idiots

it says games that "advocate terrorism" not "feature terrorism" can be refused classification (along with movies, etc)

By their definition, advocate (more or less) = displaying a way to benefit from a terrorist act or allowing someone to learn how to apply said techniques.
I'm certainly not fluent in legalese however I do recognise the potential for misuse that this represents, surely you can see this?

This is way different to law enforcement having the ability to arrest someone for using swear words

ah bulls***

nothing you'd be interested in would be banned by these changes. how you can honestly think that even by the loosest interpretation of that definition a game like counterstrike would be banned is beyond me. are you retarded?

yeah, bomberman is totally going to be banned now. you knob.

I'll be happy if your right nF _ I just don't have any faith in the ruling parties common sense

that sounds like a terrorist talking

whose talking? I'm typing!
an for the record, I'm not a terrorist, I'm a well adjusted sociopath mkay

even if it does pass, we gotta wait till all the old fogies die off with there traditional values and beleifs, when our generation makes it to those positions, it will be gaming FTW, Porno FTW and stuffs

well, I'm 38 so those ol c***s better die off real quick before I do so that I can run the country!

err wtf? How likely is this to actually happen?

bomberman is totally going to be banned now.

I bet if he was of a muslim background he would've been banned along time ago, and prolly sent to guantanamo bay to serve with David Hicks.

A Quote from within the Digest.

The classification scheme should be clear enough that the impressionable and vulnerable in the community are protected from material which encourages people to carry out acts of terrorism through techniques such as praising terrorist acts or issuing calls for action based on ideological or religious duty.5

...

how you can honestly think that even by the loosest interpretation of that definition a game like counterstrike would be banned is beyond me. are you retarded?

Taking the above quote, specifically the part

acts of terrorism through techniques such as praising terrorist acts

Points and high scores for planting and defending bombs. Praise from the community for being good at it.

Remember, once a seemingly mundane law/bill gets passed. If it isn't worded extremely well it can be potentially used incorrectly.

We all understand what the bill is getting at, most of us seem to understand that it could also be misused by people such as Jack Thompson.

last edited by Tollaz0r! at 08:29:09 21/Sep/07

Here's another slant on it

In essence, the Criminal Code defines 'terrorist act' as an action or threat of action that is done with the intention of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause and is also done with the intention of coercing or influencing by intimidation any government, the public or a section of the public.

Crysis could be "Refused Classification" as it involves action taken against a government (Nrth Korea)
Games like WarHammer could also be considered fair game for terms like "Purge The Unbeliever, the Heritec" etc

On the upside, it may also have the bible banned

last edited by HERMITech at 09:49:22 21/Sep/07

look at it from another point of view. some media companies already produce extreme content actively encouraging/inciting murder and other horrendous acts. these organisations or similar may produce computer games, and this law is to try and stop those games being made available here. sure they will still make it here but at least now the police would be able to sieze titles from organisations distributing these games within australia.

while content like this is broadcast on public airwaves in some countries i guess they are particularly worried about it being prettied up and made more exciting than some old codger droning on - and games could be used to do just that.

if u want to look at the sort of messages getting out there, checkout memri.org

Points and high scores for planting and defending bombs. Praise from the community for being good at it.

Yeah... no. One team planting a box in a railway station while the other team tries to stop them isn't exactly glorifying terrorism. For a start the terrorist aspect of a game like counterstrike isn't exactly explored beyond being a simple objective in a fairly simple game. Theres no background given, no reasons behind planting the explosive in the middle of an unpopulated map. Theres nothing even remotely political in it. Its just a simple game with opposing teams one of which is called the terrorists. No reasonable person would associate a game like counterstrike with inciting terrorism.

Hence it'd never get banned by this new classification scheme.

Laws already exist that limit the availability of games and movies that promote violence (this has been in place for ages, a clockwork orange was once banned for this reason). Yet, a game like GTA:SA which features a fair wack of violence is able to pass classification with an MA rating. A game where you are tasked to commit violent acts in order to procede. I'm not suggesting that it promotes violence outside of the game itself, and clearly the OFLC agrees.

This is really no different. Mentioning, featuring or role playing as a terrorist doesn't immediately classify a game as inciting terrorism in the same way that a game where you beat people with a baseball bat doesn't incite real-life violence.

A game, movie or book which specifically spells out that killing the enemies of islam will lead to eternal happiness in the afterlife is a different matter. Counter-strike certainly doesn't fit that criteria.

A
publication, film or computer game advocates the doing of a terrorist act if:
a) it directly or indirectly counsels or urges the doing of a terrorist act
b) it directly or indirectly provides instruction on the doing of a terrorist act

Based on the treatment of a violent video game (ie, they are not considered to advocate violence generally), then i can't see why this is such a fuss.

There are actually stories behind cs maps if you press I.

But the vast majority of de_ maps are either a) destroying nuclear weapons b) destroying oil piplelines or c) destroying chemical weapons cache's..

Not exactly terror evoking stuff there (could do without some of those things ;D)