There is an online petition calling for the introduction of an R18+ rating for computer games in Queensland. The petition states simply:

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that the Classification of Computer Games and Images Act 1995 is currently out of step with the wishes of the electorate.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House that it be amended to permit computer games to receive the R18+ classification when they have been refused classification under the Commonwealth Act.

This petition is available on the Queensland Parliament website, and is open to Queensland residents only. If you live in Queensland and support the introduction of an R18+ rating, you should make your voice heard.

It is unlikely that this petition will directly result in Queensland breaking from the rest of Australia to introduce an R18+ rating for games. It may, however, increase the pressure on Queensland’s Attorney-General to speed up the release of the discussion paper, which appears to be stuck with the Commonwealth Minister for Home Affairs.

For a few weeks, 2K Games’ new title, Borderlands, was available to Australians at the same price on Steam that it was available in the UK and US. The game has been pulled from the Australian Steam site for the last week. Kotaku is now reporting that the game will reappear at a much higher price.

2K Games' Borderlands (image from Kotaku)

This probably doesn’t quite amount to resale price maintenance, which is the illegal practice of setting minimum prices so that retailers don’t undercut each other. It’s probable that the relationship between Steam and 2K is complicated enough that this isn’t technically an example of game prices being hiked up in order to lessen competition and protect Australian retailers, who have become used to selling games at a much higher price than their counterparts elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, it is the sort of behaviour that’s likely to annoy consumers, and quite rightly.

The huge markup for electronic distribution seems to be a trend – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, for example, is available from Steam for Australian residents at USD$89.99, and US residents for USD$59.99.

This is, of course, no big surprise for Australians. We have become quite used to paying more for books, music, and movies. What’s particularly upsetting is that there is no way that retailers can justify the price increase for digital distribution by blaming the size and remoteness of the Australian market – the bits no longer have to be shipped here by boat.

When Trent Reznor realised that the price of his CDs in Australia were, in his words, ‘ridiculous’, his advice to his fans was to “Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin’”, because that was the best way that publishers would “get it through their head that they’re ripping people off and that’s not right.”

We don’t condone copyright infringement here, but there is growing unease amongst Australian gamers about the unfairness of a system that seems to discriminate against them – even when, as now, the Australian dollar is doing extremely well against the US Dollar. Perhaps if the industry cares about how fans view publishers, it will do something to address these concerns.

For now, we suggest that you purchase your games from overseas retailers, or get a friend with access to an international Steam store to gift it to you at their lower prices.

A new six page form-letter from the South Australian Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, on the topic of the lack of an R18+ rating for games has begun circulating. An EFA member has sent us the response he received; it seems almost identical to the ones available at both Kotaku and Reddit. [ ed: see also discussion at ausgamers. ]

The letter reiterate that this is not going to be an easy fight to win. For Atkinson, the lack of an R18+ rating is clearly something that helps keep violent media away from children, and he sees no real harm in not making the same material available to adults. This letter shows both his conviction and his arrogance on the issue. He ends by stating that his constituents “are more concerned with real-life issues than home entertainment in imaginary worlds” and notes that he is “grateful for the support [he has] had [...] from the Liberal Party”.

I want to put together a response to the discussion paper that analyses and addresses all of the points that Atkinson makes, as well as systematically covering the research in the field. If you are able to help, please contact me, join our R18+ games discussion list, or take a look at our (quite bare at the moment) wiki space.

[ edit: you can get the PDF of an identical letter from the reddit post ]

Steve Farrelly over at Ausgamers attempts to unravel the apparent inconsistency in two recent decisions of the Classification Board in rating computer games: refusing classification to Left 4 Dead 2, but granting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 an MA15+ rating, where in most other jurisdictions it was rated as suitable for adults only.

Farrelly argues that:

the system itself is flawed, because in [the Classification Board's] arguments against classifying Left 4 Dead 2 they cite many things that you are currently able to do in other games, specifically Dead Rising, which encourages the use of creative melee weapons to dismember and kill the undead. The Samurai sword, as the best example, offering equal amounts of locational damage also showing off zombie insides; a game quite easily marked with an MA 15+ upon submission. And that is but one example.

The problem here then is there’s no such thing as precedent. In the Board’s eyes, despite releasing both Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising as MA 15+ games (among many, many others), they hold no ground to how they should treat Left 4 Dead 2, which is why it’s entirely fine to walk into an airport in Modern Warfare 2, kill innocent people and watch piles of bodies build up on the floor around you, but it’s not okay to smack a zombie in the face with a frying pan.

This is an interesting point – it certainly seems as though there is great difficulty in the potential for inconsistency in the Classification Board’s case-by-case approach. The Board does have guidelines which it follows quite closely, but when cases like this seem to lead to inconsistent results, it lessens confidence in the system.

If you have some comments, head on over to the Ausgamers weekend discussion and add your voice.

New political party, Gamers 4 Croydon, have created a one-click tool to email your Attorney-General and request the release of the R18+ Discussion Paper.

The next meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General is apparently Thursday and Friday this week; if you care about an R18+ rating, send an email to your A-G now!

The new round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations has started in Seoul. This round sees the introduction of the long-anticipated internet enforcement measures, which the US has drafted in secret. Michael Geist reports that the draft text is modeled on the US – South Korea free trade agreement, and focuses on five issues:

1. Baseline obligations inspired by Article 41 of the TRIPs which focuses on the enforcement of intellectual property.
2. A requirement to establish third-party liability for copyright infringement.
3. Restrictions on limitations to 3rd party liability (ie. limited safe harbour rules for ISPs). For example, in order for ISPs to qualify for a safe harbour, they would be required [to] establish policies to deter unauthorized storage and transmission of IP infringing content. Provisions are modeled under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, namely Article 18.10.30. They include policies to terminate subscribers in appropriate circumstances. Notice-and-takedown, which is not currently the law in Canada nor a requirement under WIPO, would also be an ACTA requirement.
4. Anti-circumvention legislation that establishes a WIPO+ model by adopting both the WIPO Internet Treaties and the language currently found in U.S. free trade agreements that go beyond the WIPO treaty requirements. For example, the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement specifies the permitted exceptions to anti-circumvention rules. These follow the DMCA model (reverse engineering, computer testing, privacy, etc.) and do not include a fair use/fair dealing exception. Moreover, the free trade agreement clauses also include a requirement to ban the distribution of circumvention devices. The current draft does not include any obligation to ensure interoperability of DRM.
5. Rights Management provisions, also modeled on U.S. free trade treaty language.

Read more … »

The Australian version of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo has been released, and the highly cut version is a bitter disappointment for many Australian gamers.

L4D2 screenshot by ravn0s shows disappearing zombies

First impressions from Australian gamers indicates that the highly-censored version results in a vastly inferior atmosphere to the original, uncut version.

The lack of an R18+ rating is likely to significantly harm Australian sales of the game, and we expect that many Australians will either not buy the game or will illicitly obtain an uncensored international version. Both adult Australian gamers and the software industry itself are made worse off by the lack of an R18+ rating.

Any benefits to minors of banning adult video games is questionable. Research into effects of violent games does not provide a clear and satisfying case for banning such games. At any rate, withholding titles from Australian adults is counter-productive – it is likely to result in more illicit copies, less respect for classification, and a diminished capacity for parents to monitor the games that their children are playing. Classification serves as a clear notice to allow Australian adults to make choices for themselves and for the children they are responsible for. A system that refuses to classify games that are widely available through illicit channels is unlikely to significantly reduce, and may in fact increase, exposure of children to age-inappropriate content.

An R18+ classification would require the unanimous support of all Attorneys-General, and in the past moves to change the current classification have been blocked on the vote of a single state Attorney-General. Progress has been made, and it appears that a discussion paper considering the introduction of an R18+ category is ready to be released. No sign of the discussion paper has been seen since the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP took over as the Commonwealth Minister for Home Affairs.

We encourage everyone interested in this issue to contact the Minister for Home Affairs and show your support for the release of the discussion paper. Australians deserve to have a say in this debate, and the release of this discussion paper is long overdue.

See our wiki page for the R18+ campaign for more details.

Asher Moses is reporting on the outrage caused by leaked footage of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which allows players to play the part of a terrorist as part of a cut-scene.

Once again, this story really shows how expressive video games can be. They’re constructed, like films, to elicit emotional responses in players, and some of them deal with fairly gritty subject matter. Films often show the villain’s perspective, and by doing that, they get across the character story and the heinous nature of people who carry out atrocities. Games, too, are becoming more expressive, and are telling more involved stories. From the reports I’ve seen of the CoD:MW2 footage, it seems to be trying to tell the story of a truly evil character, setting the scene for the player’s main role of stopping the terrorists.

We do not ban films that tell such expressive stories, and we need to realise that computer games, like gamers, have grown up. Most interestingly, Infinity Ward appear to acknowledge that the game is aimed at an Adult audience – it’s MA 15+ rating in Australia is lower than elsewhere. If we’re concerned about allowing people to make informed decisions about what games they want to play, and empowering parents to make those decisions for their children, it really seems like it’s time that we should introduce an R 18+ rating.

The EFA Board has released its annual report to members for the year 2008/09. The EFA AGM will be held on 16 November 2009.

Thank you all for all of your continued support throughout the year.

— Nic Suzor, EFA Chair

Richard Giles has a few posts on his blog about a matter you may have heard about. Richard took some photographs at the Beijing Olympics and posted them on his Flickr account. Last week he was sent a rather forceful cease and desist letter from the IOC, which he also put up. The story was picked up by a number of influential sites, and people all over the world voiced their outrage at what they see as unfair restrictions on sharing personal photographs of the event.

Image by Tama Leaver, available under CC BY 2.0.)

This story makes a very interesting read. It raises significant issues about the ability of spectators to take and share photos of events, and the way in which contract law is used to override the explicit lack of protection in copyright law for spectacles. More interestingly, however, it reads as an educative guide on how not to enforce intellectual property rights. As Richard explains, the Media and Communications Director of the Australian Olympics Committee was not happy about the bad press that resulted after Richard publicly posted the letter he received. Richard’s actions, however, seem reasonable – he was always calm and measured about his statements, and I see no reason that he is required to protect a rightsholder from potential criticism for the way in which they send legal threats. Interestingly, Richard shared a follow-up email from the IOC, in which the IOC explained their position in much greater detail and much more polite language.

The story ends in a way that’s not quite satisfactory – Richard has had to change the licensing on his photos from a permissive non-commercial licence to ‘all rights reserved’, and the IOC and the AOC have weathered some substantial criticism for their actions.

The moral of the story, however, seems fairly clear: pick up the phone or send a personal email before sending a form cease and desist letter.

Read the story on Richard’s blog: Part 1 and Part 2.

[ edit 01 Nov 2009: fixed a typo. ]

EFA will shortly make a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2009 (Cth).

We previously made a submission to the Attorney-General’s Department on the exposure draft of this Bill. We are happy to say that our concerns were addressed and that the new Bill appears to provide an appropriately limited exception for permissible interception of telecommunications for network security purposes. We commend the Attorney-General’s Department on achieving a workable legislative exception to the prohibition on interception of telecommunications that allows network operators to perform legitimate network protection duties without unduly burdening the privacy of end users.

There are a few minor issues we would like to see clarified in the Bill – particularly relating to the obligation to destroy intercepted communications and the interception of audiovisual content.

You can view our submission here (500KB PDF). Other submissions will appear on the Committee’s website in due course.

The Classification Board appears to have reclassified Left 4 Dead 2 to MA15+, the highest rating level in Australia.

The good news is that L4D2 is now cleared to be distributed in Australia. The sad news is that adult Australian gamers are still restricted from playing games that we deem suitable for people aged 16 and up.

edit: it appears that Valve modified the game and re-submitted it to the Classification Board to obtain this approval.

edit 2: GameSpot AU reports that the game has been substantially modified to allow classification in Australia:

While EA and Valve have been quiet about exactly what content had been changed in the “modified version” of Left 4 Dead 2, Australia’s Classification Board hasn’t been as silent. The Board has provided GameSpot AU with a copy of today’s Left 4 Dead 2 ruling, which states that the modified version of the game recently resubmitted “no longer contains depictions of decapitations, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of bodies lying about the environment”.
 
“It is the Board’s view that the element of violence in the game has been sufficiently modified and is now able to be accommodated within the MA15+ classification,” the report stated.

The QUT Faculty of Law and Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House are running two free intellectual property and technology law advice sessions in October and November in Brisbane.

Professor Brian Fitzgerald and Kylie Pappalardo from QUT Faculty of Law, in conjunction with Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House (QPILCH), have established an IP and Technology Law Clinic to provide free legal advice for members of the creative and technology sectors with limited financial resources. Ask legal professionals about copyright, recording and publishing agreements, media rights, digital distribution, business models, and much more.

Book now for the inaugural advice sessions: Thursday 29 October 2009 and Thursday 26 November 2009, Brisbane CBD from 5:30pm-7:30pm.

To make a booking, call (07) 3136 6836

This is an excellent opportunity for those who need free legal advice in Brisbane. If you’re not in Brisbane, you may even be able to get the lawyers at the clinic to give you advice by telephone.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is holding an inquiry into the newly introduced Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill 2009 (Cth). We recently sent our concerns about the exposure draft for this Bill to the Attorney-General’s department. At the time, we were worried that the proposed legislation provided a very broad exception to the general prohibition on interception of telecommunications. The original wording of the exposure draft would have allowed any network operators to monitor their networks for compliance with acceptable use policies or other user agreements. It then provided no real limitations on the disclosure of this information. We were very concerned that this would allow consumer ISPs to monitor their subscribers’ internet access and disclose communications to third parties.

I am happy to say that the Bill as introduced has removed the greatest majority of our concerns. It appears to be closely tailored to network security purposes, and the ability to monitor for whether a network is being ‘appropriately used’ is limited to Commonwealth agencies. There are additionally much stronger limitations as to when intercepted information can be disclosed.

The Senate LACA has called for submissions to the Bill by 09 October 2009. We will be drafting a submission in the next week. If you have continuing concerns about the Bill or want to help with our submission, please see the draft submission on the wiki.

Valve’s highly-anticipated sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, has just been refused classification in Australia.

For more information, see IGN and Kotaku.

I imagine that this will go to the Classification Review Board for appeal. This highlights the continued impact of a lack of an R18+ rating for computer games in Australia. If this decision stands, Australian adults will find it significantly more difficult to play the much anticipated zombie shooter sequel.

This follows from some reports from Gamespot.au earlier this week that little progress has been made on releasing the discussion paper for the introduction of an R18+ rating in Australia.

Once the discussion paper arrives, we will be putting in a submission. Until then, you may want to help by (a) writing to your Attorney-General; or (b) helping us prepare the submission in advance. See our wiki for more details.

I spoke last night at the Fellowship Of the Round Table forum last night at parliament house in Sydney on the forum topic “Cyberhate? Censorship on the Internet”, as did Fiona Patten from the Australian Sex Party.  Jim Wallace from the Australian Christian Lobby and Angela Conway (formerly of the Australian Family Association) were also in attendance and spoke on a different topic, entirely one of their own choosing.

Read more … »