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Games Entertainment

Greece Warned Over Games Ban 24

Posted by simoniker from the destroy-all-joypads-now dept.
Thanks to GameSpot for their article discussing the European Commission's formal warning to Greece over the country's attempt to ban all videogames last year. The article summarizes: "The law stirred up anger and disbelief after it resulted in several arrests and the closure of Internet cafes. Although Greece later clarified that the law only prohibits gambling-related games, the EC was 'unsatisfied' with the response and has sent a formal notice requesting more information." According to a lawyer familiar with the case, "The way the Greek law was drafted was an absolute mess. It was drafted so widely that using a PlayStation at home would amount to a breach of the law - which is ridiculous." Would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for that meddling European Commission.
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Greece Warned Over Games Ban More

Greece Warned Over Games Ban

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  • Oh threatening. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 )
    Struan Robertson, solicitor at law firm Mason's and editor of out-law.com, said that Greece did not follow an EC directive that requires countries to give the commission three months' notice before passing a law that concerns "Information Society services."

    And not following an EC directive is bad how? They send a threatening letter?!

    Just funny, Greece has to inform the EC before it passes laws of Informational nature.

  • Ok, but.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Saturday July 26, 2003 @11:00AM (#6539805) Journal
    While the law may be stupidly worded, this is essentially a Greek affair, and none of the EU's business. Greece IS a democracy, after all. Their citizens can vote out the people that pass these laws. I'm uncomrtable with the EU coming in and saying "nope, we say you can't do this". It's not like this is China or North Korea where the people don't have a real voice of thier own.

    • Re:Ok, but.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Unordained ( 262962 ) <unordained_slashdotNOSPAM@csmaster.org> on Saturday July 26, 2003 @12:25PM (#6540239)
      In the U.S., citizens may say the same thing about state-level laws: the federal government should have no say. While the E.U. isn't quite like the U.S. federal government in respect to member countries, the idea is the same. As a -community- of nations, neighboring states get to have a say in the internal affairs of other nations, a bit like my neighbors can tell me to turn down the music when it bothers them: something like video games sales would actually hurt the industries of other E.U. nations. (as I recall, France for example is very proud of a long line of Myst-type games involving their CG studios.) Again, it's also like the U.N. telling nations (members or not) to do -stuff- at the request of other nations. An invasion is always a long way away, but the idea is to remind countries, states, and any other level of government, that they do not act in a vacuum. Although leaving such groups to go "do your own thing" is almost always an option, compromise is preferred. Everyone knows it, and everyone plays by those rules (except the U.S.) Most likely, E.U. countries won't make unreasonable demands of each other, and such demands would undoubtedly eventually come back to haunt them. You elect representatives to listen to you, yes. But you also elect them to keep the world in mind, and keep the peace between nations (whether political, economic, or military.) It's not out of their jurisdiction to compromise on your behalf, even if they originally acted upon citizen request.

      You don't have to like it, and you're welcome to complain: a country is perfectly justified in speaking out against the community around it, standing its ground, and making a few enemies. Do I turn down the music? Not always.

      (btw: in any nation, every person has a voice, whether they realize it or not. the leaders, the military, the police, the structure designed to keep the population quiet ... is entirely run by people like us. any link in the chain can be broken, any voice can eventually be heard. to maintain this myth that they have "no real voice" only helps the system as it is stay in place. don't we want to fight that system?)
    • When a country joins the EU it agrees to play by the rules. One of the rules, to which Greece signed up when it ratified the EC Treaty, is "proportionality": the effects of legislation should be proportionate to the aim of the legislation.

      In this case the aim was to restrict electronic gambling, and the effect is to ban all electronic games. If this isn't disproportionate then I don't know what is. It's clearly the EU's business if a country breaches EC law.

      (It's probably also contrary to the European Con
  • If you're trying to absolutly maximize productivity, video games probably waste a lot of a nation's resources...

  • the law is bad but there are social reasons for it (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    hello from a country far far away...

    i think that you'll understand that since
    there is an atlantic ocean between us there
    will be some cultural differences, so something
    that appears to you totally unreasonable and
    crazy may well have a good and valid foundation for me

    the law for electronic games was passed because
    many people were addicted to slot (vegas style) machine gambling, the law is not directed
    towards consumer electronic devices in spirit

    but in wording it is and because all our MP's
    (MP = like congres
    • Well pointed by the Anonymous Coward , the legislation was passed just to fight the illegal gambling games cautiously hidden behind pac-man/arcade games, but as most of the MPs are computer illeterate they decided to ban all sorts of entertainment machines in their law. Fortunately, many demonstrations held mostly by Internet Cafe owners and businessmen pointed out that not all computer/entertainment machines are the same, as well as not all businesses act in the same manner. My opinion as a Greek citizen i
    • you will ask, even for slot machines, why is so strict control needed ? because greeks (hellenes is the corect name btw)) are a bit passioned people that get carried away and not always think in logic but many times in feelings

      Dude... and I thought Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, etc. were from there. What happened?

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