Gaming Around The World: Australia Legalizes, Germay Bans

It's a crazy gaming world we live in! Over in Europe, ze germans are still bent on banning violent games from their country once and for all, while Australia - one of the most inhospitable countries, gaming wise - is but one step away from legalizing mod chips. Talk about irony... Well, let's not dwell any further on figures of speech, and let's dig right in.

The issue of mod chips, such as those used to play unauthorized games on the PlayStation 2, goes back many years. Such engineering tricks are currently illegal in the U.S. and UK, for instance. But Australia will soon join Spain and Italy, among others, as one of the many countries in which mod chips are perfectly legal, but apparently only as long as people use them to bypass anti-piracy technology *and* regional locking in games consoles and DVD players. However, if said mod chips are only used to bypass anti-piracy technology, they are still illegal. Does that make sense to you? Luckily, Australian IT has more on this story:

"Amendments to Australia's copyright laws expected to be passed this week will make it legal for consumers to use modified chips (mod-chips) that circumvent anti-piracy technology built into game consoles if they also overcome measures that restrict the use of DVDs and games titles purchased legally in other regions.

(...) changes to the law incorporated in the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 and presented to the Senate in October only outlaw chips in cases where they have the sole purpose of overcoming anti-piracy technology."

That is one messed up judicial system! But still, not as messed up as Germany's. Check out what this report from Gamasutra has to say:

"In the aftermath of a recent school shooting in Germany, the regional governments of Bavaria and Lower Saxony have proposed new legislation that could punish those who make, distribute, or even play video games featuring "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters" with a fine and up to a year in prison. The newly drafted bill is scheduled to go before the upper house of parliament next year."

No wonder Crytek is getting ready to leave the country, to develop their not-so-violent shooter Crysis in a more sane social environment. If this law is passed, they - and many others like them - would practically be denied the right to make ultra-violent games. And of course, you know how relative violence can be in the gullible eyes of the public, so it won't matter if the game in question is not-so-violent or ultra-violent (not that it *should* matter, once it gets a "Mature" rating). Especially after all the school shootings they had over there lately.

Oh well, at least they're still wide open to sex in games, unlike a certain other "free" nation we know...

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)