Monday, June 29, 2009

Doubledown Tandino's Diggs of the Week - Australia Gaming and Net Censorship? - June 2009

Australia to Begin Filtering Online Games incl Second Life

escapistmagazine.com — Australia plans to filter internet sites offering games and online gaming content that exceed the MA15+ age rating, including downloadable and Flash games as well as sites that sell retail games online.


Australia to Ban Second Life? | Dusan Writer’s Metaverse

dusanwriter.com — According to the Inquisitr, new laws in Australia will mean that Second Life is banned on that continent. Thoughts, comments, discussions with Dusan and members of the virtual worlds.


Australia Govt to block websites offering banned games.

gamespot.com —
Australian gamers are probably well aware of their country's strict games classification system, with the lack of an R18+ rating meaning any title not fitting under the MA15+ rating is automatically banned from sale down under. This means it is illegal to sell a game which has been refused classification in Australia.


Australia to Block Online Access to Games with 15+ Content

gamepolitics.com —
Australia's federal government said yesterday that it plans to block access to websites which host and sell games with content edgier than what is allowable under an MA-15+ rating. The unprecedented censorship policy will apply to Australians of all ages.


Australian network filtering promises to block Online Games

massively.com —
Australian Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has promised to extend Australia's proposed network-level content filtering regime to block games, online games, downloadable games, and websites that sell or allow download of games that are deemed not to be suitable for a 15-year-old audience.


Australia: Bans, Filters and Government 2.0 Taskforce

laurelpapworth.com —
with regards to online games, some are boxed (closed systems such as Grand Theft Auto), some are box and server (multiplayer such as World of Warcraft) and some are downloadable clients or simply web based clients to a hosted server (Second Life, Habbo).


Who is Responsible for Assuring Freedoms in Virtual Worlds

metanomics.net —
Recent developments in a discussion regarding human rights on the web are forcing the consideration of a complex set of issues related to virtual worlds.


Net filtering and virtual worlds: reactions

metaversejournal.com — After last night’s story on the Australian Government’s internet content filtering legislation and its potential impact on virtual worlds, the response has been astounding. Today has seen the largest ever traffic on The Metaverse Journal. Like any issue, there are a few camps of thought:


** NO CLEAN FEED | Stop Internet Censorship in Australia

nocleanfeed.com — The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.


Rumors of Australian Second Life Censorship Seem Rumurish

nwn.blogs.com — Over the last 24 hours I've been peppered with links as here and here which seem to suggest the Australian government is imminently planning to block access to Second Life from that country. It has to do with a recent Aussie Communication Ministry proposal to filter the online distribution of computer games not rated acceptable for teen play.


Second Life Banned in Australia? Not So Fast...

gamepolitics.com — As GamePolitics reported last week, the Australian government is moving to block online access to games containing content which would exceed the country's MA-15+ rating. The proposed filtering scheme would affect online retailers selling such games as well as games played online such as MMOs.

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