It is currently illegal to sell MMOs in Australia.
No, it is not April first. Nor is this some kind of surrealistic joke.
Read this article for further details.
It was not done deliberately, I wouldn’t think, more a loophole in the classification laws that had gone unnoticed. Online games, such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Everquest etc don’t get a classification, and it is illegal to sell games with out a classification.
Will they actually charge someone before the laws get fixed? Unlikely, as ever single shop that sells games in Australia would need to be charged. Mind you, given the massive budget deficit the government is creating to try and spend its way out of the fiscal crisis, they may just need the money.
And does it become illegal to posses one of those games now?
Of course, even when they do fix this loophole, the government is bent on neutering the ‘net anyway with their aims to introduce a mandatory filtering system. The aim is to block undesirable content, which is laudable, but fails on many levels. Largely who decides what is and isn’t allowed and how do you stop the government clamping down on legitimate free speech, plus most specialists are saying it won’t work and will have the added effect of slowing down the speed of ‘net by substantial amounts.
Mist and Shadows 