I'll start with a small prologue to remind people of my previous post(summer 2002).
Illegal gambling was(and is) one of the best ways for criminals to make money and also destroy the lives of people who are addicted to it.
After the exposure by a journalist that showed the real magnitude of the problem the goverment announced that a law that banned that
illegal gambling would be voted and so it came to be law 3037/2002.
That law had one goal, to stop the easiest way of illegal gambling... Electronic gambling! Things were simple, the dealers would install
circuits that with a push of a button would turn normal arcade games to electronic slot machines! As you can see the law had to stop it!
3037 stated that any electronic games(software) would be illegal to use even in private space besides public. Overall the law banned
everything. You were a criminal by playing with your Gameboy just as much as if you were playing Windows Minesweeper.
After arrests, quort rulings that the law was unconstitutional and letters from the EU the goverment decited to pay attention to that
little thing and issued a correction for the law that stated taht it's ok of the games do not provide profit to the player and are not
gambling games. Let me just say that the law was voted in the summer with only 4 people present in the parliament as everyone was on
vacation! That was the end... or so we thought...
It's December 2003 and the problems for the games are over as we have been legal for several months now. The internet cafe owners are now
waiting for a new law that dictates the way the shops work. Let me just say that we go there to have lan parties and have local
tournaments on games like Counter Strike, Fifa, Quale, Unreal etc as all the pc's are linked and they usually have broadband.
And so the new law was voted... The new law also had to ensure the "legal" issues as well and cover any gaps that 3037 may have left.
Let me just remind you that 3037 defines as electronic games any game that needs software to run.
The following is a translation of the Editorial included in December 2003 issue of PC Master. Everything is a translation and only the
parts that deal with the new law. (Anything formated this way is my comment).
The editorial ends with the ending statement of the chief editor but I'd rather write mine instead. We were all humiliated by the previousQuote:
Article 1, Paragraph 2BvI: Inside internet cafes there have to be at least two signs saying "No playing games allowed and any kind
of bet/gambling". OK we agree with that but what does the poet want to say here? Games as they were defined in 3037?
Article 1, Paragraph 3a: The internet cafe computers from now on will be refered(in the documents alone?) with the official name
"Internet Service providing systems"(free translation, it's quite close). "They will have to be placed in visible spots with the
form that they originally had(tower next to the monitor, mouse keyboard etc. They are not allowed to be blaced inside special
construvtions(shelves for midi towers etc) or be connected with consoles, gamepads, buttons etc". Ok so we forget about gamepads. Let's
move on...
Article 1, Paragraph 8: Providing or renting CD's, floppies etc that contain games in order to be used in those pc's by the owners
of the shop is not allowed as well as using those games outside the shop. The clients are also not allowed to bring any games of their own
to use.
Ok, so they made it clear that we cannot bring our own games to play so if we want to we need to run to our homes... At least we are now
allowed to do that there.
The legistlators didn't ban all games from net cafes! "Technical games are allowed(flipper games...), card and games that have
specially contructed boards.
That's it... No more counter Strike... No more Warcraft... Let's make backdamon clans and other clans that excen in the traditional Greek
games!!!
The law continues with exact copies from law 3037 that prohibit the installation and use of games so whatever was removed has now
returned!
So far we covered the things that are illegal but what if a internet cafe owner decides to be legal and wants to delete the games from teh
pcs? "No use of programs that alter, hide or delete files in the computer are allowed"... That's right... You can't even delete the games
because the delete function of windows is a program so it's banned... so is FORMAT... And what if the hard disk is full? You thow it away
and buy a new one! Do you know what the best part is? Windows use temporary files! The operating system creates and deletes the files
whenever is needed so the system itself is ILLEGAL!
law that just banned games at a time when we could hardly play online because of the lack of broadband. Back then tournaments were
canceled and some teams decited not to go to international meetings. This new law taht does not even allow that category of people to use
the delete button is going to offer us more humiliation than ever... Individual games are safe for now but for how long? The entire
parliament has to be filled with idiots...
Fuck them...
