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Australia takes no action on unrated computer games
Since we broke the story on the unlawful sales of unrated MMOGs in Australia last week, there has been a fair bit of coverage, from Australian newspapers to assorted gaming blogs. Much of what you've probably read since the original story covered here and later in the Sydney Morning Herald haven't really had much in the way of new information, and like a game of Telephone, the tale has grown somewhat in the telling. So, here we're going to set it out for you, so you can get the information straight. Firstly, Australia has not suddenly banned MMOGs, nor has any law related to their classification or sale been abruptly changed. The regulations have been in place since at least 1995, and there's nothing new in that regard.
Gaming the ratings game
Life used to be so simple. You'd walk into a store, present your purchase, pay for it and walk on out again. The laws and regulations that govern both you and the seller were the same. With mail-order, phone order and digital downloads, that is no longer the case. You see in a simple transaction, like the purchase of an MMOG, there are actually two distinct actions taking place, a purchase and a sale. The act of selling is governed by the regulations that the seller is subject to in their jurisdiction. The purchase is under the jurisdiction of the buyer. It's funny, really MMOGs like Funcom's Age of Conan on Australian shelves may trigger all sorts of fines (especially if the title is ultimately refused classification), but sales of the same title to Australians via Steam could well be immune to all the ratings fuss. Simply put, the enforcement act that governs the sales of rated and unrated material in Australia applies almost entirely to selling (not to buying) and the act of the sale for most digital downloads is taking place out of range of those regulations.
MMOs defy classification in Australia
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Selling_MMOs_in_Australia_could_net_huge_fines'; There's been quite a bit of fuss over the last twelve months or so about game ratings in Australia. According to the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act of 1995, computer and console games are treated very much like films. All of that rating is done by the Classification Board, in conjunction with the Australian Federal Attorney-General's office. "Every film ... and computer game ... has to be classified before it can be made legally available to the public." - Australian Classification Board One of the hitches in game-ratings in Australia is that there are no "R18+" or "X18+" ratings for games as there are for films. Games that would fall into these categories are refused classification. Because of this, no video games can be traded or sold in Australia that have content that is not appropriate for a 15-year-old. Without a formal classification (and compliant labeling) for a game, it is a criminal offense under Australian State and Territory laws for it to be sold, hired or demonstrated. The problem here is that comparatively few MMOG titles sold on Australia's retail shelves ever carry a rating and labeling as the Classification Act requires. Could publishers, distributors and retailers of these unrated MMOGs suddenly wake up to find themselves in a legal hole hundreds of thousands of sales deep?
