Greeks ban computer games! and mobile phones!

[MarkG]

Originally posted by paiktis22
dont kill me for saying that, but it;s not particularly news worthy

the prime minister's mobile phone most probably has illegal software on it and you're saying that's not newsworthy?

[Chris 62]

Paiktis is a sellout.

[Bereta_Eder]

look, unless someone starts shooting somebody for this, it won't make the headlines. live with it

[Chris 62]

Not IMPORTANT enough for you, eh?

Some journalist, a traitor to the people!

[Grrr]

Argh: we've had suomithredi; don't give us GreekoThreed's.

[Bereta_Eder]

not important enough for the people themselves

I really dont know if it had exposure and how much...

[Chris 62]

Ha!

An apology maker for those in power!

Traitor!

[Bereta_Eder]

when did games become part of the "revolution"?

[Chris 62]

Whenever you cover for "da man", your a traitor!

[Bereta_Eder]

I'm not covering for da man. Actually I think da man doesn;t even know about it

[Grrr]

More articles:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26041.html

Greek ban on gaming threatens Internet cafes
By John Lettice
Posted: 04/07/2002 at 12:49 GMT


A Register reader in Greece emails us claiming that the Greek government has effectively outlawed Internet cafes by "all LAN and Internet games and any kind of game that is supported by electrical, electronic or software means." If anybody so much as has something looking like a game on the screen, he tells us, the cafe manager is liable for arrest.

All of this makes some kind of perverted sense. Computers in Internet cafes are gaming machines, sort of. Or at least they have that potential, and Greece has already shown signs of considering them as such. More recently, Greece banned all amusement and gambling machines, including the likes of Pac Man.

You pay for computers in Internet cafes, you can play games on them, so yes, there you go. And a little further research leads us to believe that Greece's position is maybe not so wildly eccentric as one might initially think. Here in the UK one does have to pay duty on gaming and amusement machines in public places. You can get a little more information about the position by tearing through this section of the 1995 Finance Act, but frankly we do not recommend it.

It would however seem logical to us for Internet cafe machines playing games to be classed somewhere within the amusement machines category, and therefore liable for duty. If they're not, then pubs installing computers instead of amusement machines could be on to a good wrinkle. So, some form of cafe tax? OK, but what, then, are we going to do about all of those people in pubs who'll sometime soon be whipping out their 3G phones in order to play online games?

In Greece, obviously, they'll just arrest the nearest bar manager, while in London's West End we foresee a variation on traffic wardens slapping Internetting Tickets on careless mobile gamers... ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26939.html

Greek govt bans all computer games
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 03/09/2002 at 16:45 GMT


The government of Greece is making heroic efforts to humiliate the nation in front of the entire world, by banning all electronic games. That's right; something as innocent as playing computer chess on your laptop in a hotel lobby is now a crime with penalties of up to three months in stir and a fine of 10,000 euros.

The purpose behind this charming legislation is to crack down on Internet gambling (which already was illegal) -- or, rather, to enable legislators to enact their little public dance of righteous aversion to Internet gambling.

Improved enforcement of existing law is all that was needed, but there's a problem. Unfortunately, the Greek government is "incapable of distinguishing innocuous video games from illegal gambling machines," according to an older article from the English-language Kathimerini newspaper, written while the bill was under consideration.

Now it's official. The legislature has concluded that all electronic games have got to go because the bureaucrats they're maintaining on the public payroll aren't swift enough to figure out the difference between video poker and TuXkart. Perhaps enforcing literacy requirements and sobriety regulations for government workers would have been a more productive approach, but it's too late for that now. ®

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by paiktis22
It's in the way that you use it.

So you see nothing wrong with poorly written laws that give the government sweeping powers to cover up its own inability to distinguish an internet cafe from a gambling hall?

[Bereta_Eder]

I do actually.

All I'm saying is that there's a lot of illegal gambling going on and that all those semi-underground "criminals" who used to have the one hand thieves centers have now opened up internet caffess and do the gambling from there.

The gov. solved the first problem with the one hand thieves and now it is in front of this one.

That doesn't mean that the law is "good". Even if it serves its purpose.

[Bereta_Eder]

And I tell you, in the internet caffee I sometimes frequent people are still shooting eachother in CS and Quake. :shrugs:

[Adagio]

Originally posted by MarkG
παρεπιπτοντως, δεν αρνεισαι οτι γραφεις στο Καρφι!!!!

Sure, whatever that means

I thought this wasn't an all-Greek board...but I guess I was wrong

εικςσκαι ισν

Hmmm...maybe I should try to get it translated before I reply...but what the hell (Let's just hope it doesn't mean something that should be spelled with *** )