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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Feb 13th 2003 10:51am





More Fallout Over Greek Game Ban

from the still-a-mess dept

Last year we had plenty of stories about Greece's bizarre law banning video games. Even after a court threw out the first case based on the law, and Greek lawmakers softened the language of the law a little bit (you could play games at home now, but not in internet cafes), many internet cafe owners were still being harassed by the police. Well, it's been a few months, and things aren't getting any better. Lawmakers are idiotically standing by their law, even after the EU has told them to change the law. The courts in Greece continue to throw out the cases, but police keep shutting down cafes. They have the story of one internet cafe owner who was arrested and had his computer confiscated. The court threw out the case and said he was innocent. A week later, he was arrested again. It's ruining the internet cafe business in Greece, and making them the laughingstock of the world in many ways. It seems the only people who like the law are the politicians, who come out with quotes like, "The measure is a tough one, but it is the only effective one." Effective in what? Angering everyone and destroying viable businesses?

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Context

    identicon
    dorpus, Feb 13th, 2003 @ 3:30pm

    For a variety of reasons (geographical and economic), Greece has been a hub of organized criminal activity, ranging from slave trafficking to drug running. Internet cafes in Greece do have the potential to become intimiately involved with such activity. However, at this point, it does sound like a case of cops getting free PCs unless cafe owners pay them bribes. Greek politics have a split personality between fanatical religious fundamentalism and fanatical anti-American communism. The internet is American and therefore evil, and the internet supports gambling and blasphemy, therefore evil.



    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Context

    identicon
    malhombre, Oct 27th, 2005 @ 8:16am

    OMG-I nominate that as the best and most actually insightful and uncharacteristically non-troll Dorpus post ever! Keep up the good work!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    video-games in greece

    identicon
    pelasgian, Nov 3rd, 2005 @ 5:22pm

    You know things are not THAT simple.
    The law was introduced to tackle with illegal gambling and electronic fruit machines or "one armed pirates". It is not meant to make playing quake illegal at home or in public!
    There are hundreds of net caffes out there, all of them sporting video games.

    Try to be a little bit more factual when you reproduce "news".

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Context

    identicon
    Yomama, Jan 15th, 2006 @ 4:10am

    What a typical racist western attitude. In case you haven't noticed, the age of european imperialism and cold war are over. The fringe views you mention account for not more than 10% of the electorate. Compare that with lepen and haider and every other western country you ignorant and shauvinist MORON.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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