Greece Warned (Again) Over Gaming Mess

from the slow-to-realize dept

The Greek government certainly seems a little slow to get it. First, they banned video games. Even though everyone told them it was ridiculous to do so, police still went ahead and arrested internet cafe owners for having people playing chess on their computers (the horror!). The Greek courts smartly tossed out the cases and declared the law ridiculous (not in those terms, but close enough), but the Greek government doesn't seem to care. The EU told Greece that this law was dreadful and they need to change, and the Greek government shrugged. So, now, in true Monty Python fashion, the European Commission has warned the Greek government again. Considering the fact that nothing happened last time, it's unclear what good this will do. Even someone in the article points out that it's unlikely the Commission will do any more than continually sending out angry statements against the law.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    grier, 25 Jul 2003 @ 3:21pm

    Brothels Yes, Video Games No

    Don't quite get it. At the same time they are banning video games they are increasing the number of licences available to Brothels in anticipation of the Olympics being hosted there. Are there some value problems in this culture or what?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      george dafermos, 26 Jul 2003 @ 7:58am

      Re: Brothels Yes, Video Games No

      oh yeah! I'm Greek and to tell you the truth i feel that brothels provide a social service in terms of preventing sexual related crimes from occuring at the first place, not to mention that it's safer this way coz prostitutes go through regular hygiene checks and so forth, so i'm not opposing to the notion of brothels in greece.

      however, contemporary greek culture (and society accordingly) seems to suffer from a sort of false conscioussness syndrome: internet penetration is low and none seems to bother about it, epsecially that national greek provider, banning video games is reckoned to be logical and responsible, and basically many things are fucked up.

      For instance, i 've been living in greece for the last 8 months or so, and the first thing i had to take care of when i arrived was my internet connection. at the time, the best choice was ISDN and they've only recently rolled out ADSL, and the thing is i went to OTE which is the national greek ISP and they tried to convince me that they owned the Net!!!!! i thought otherwise and told them so, but in vain. Are those people for real? oh yes...

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.