Australia continues to censor Created 14 years ago2010-01-17 23:11:02 UTC by Archie

SOURCE

FILM distributors are alarmed by new laws that quietly came into effect in South Australia this week restricting the promotion and display of R-rated movies.

Adults aged over 18 seeking to buy or borrow a copy of Mad Max, the acclaimed desert war drama Three Kings, starring George Clooney, the Brad Pitt classic Fight Club or the 2009 Blu Ray release of Sasha Baron Cohen's fashion parody Bruno will now find them in plain packaging displaying nothing more than the film's title.

The rule will apply to titles for sale or rent unless those titles are quarantined from all other audiovisual materials, in an area signposted with a warning.

Under changes to the state's classification act, which came into effect on Sunday, businesses will face fines of up to $5000 for displaying a "poster, pamphlet or other printed material" for films classified R18+.

The new law applies to general outlets containing films with classifications lower than R18+, and not adult-only premises.

Several distributors expressed surprise at the announcement of the law coming into effect, saying they had learned of it only yesterday. Potential Films managing director Mark Spratt, who has distributed numerous R-rated titles, including the contentious French drama Romance, said he was "gobsmacked".

"It's gone completely under the radar," Mr Spratt said.

Plain packaging would prevent consumers making informed decisions about these films, including critically acclaimed titles such as Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now, he said.

"It's certainly discouraging people to look for these films, discouraging shops from stocking them and (creates) an extra hassle for (distributors)," Mr Spratt said. It also had the potential to harm retailers in South Australia as consumers who wanted to buy the titles with their packaging intact would shop interstate or online.

The law was announced by the office of South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, whose conservative campaigning is well known to the film industry.

Foyer stands and posters, cinema ads and billboards for R-rated films are unaffected.

Bastards slowly killing freedoms.

Wow...Big Brother is working over time Down Under.

Alright, you mentioned the movies, but how does this new law will affect violent video games in Australia then?

....or would it?

Wow. Australia really sucks in that department huh?
Guess companies can save big bucks on designing packaging.

Gah, of course Atkinson is behind this.

Oh well, it's only in South Australia, and nobody cares about that state!

yeah what a massive joke. hopefully atkinson loses his seat in the upcoming election anyway.

George Orwell wrote about the wrong country :3

R rated games are banned nationwide. And This is utterly wrong...this country are becoming real f*#<&sts

Yeah, but there's not much we can do 'til someone starts a revolution.

how does this new law affect violent video games in Australia then?

Australia doesn't have an R rating for games. Same guy's responsible for that, too.

Hmm... This does not bode well for the next generation of aussies who leave to go somewhere else.

Don't you just love conservatism?

What an idiotic law. If anyone wants to see the cover of a movie, or a poster or whatever, they can just look it up on the internet, making the whole thing moot.

money comes out of players in cod 6 instead of blood.

R rated games are banned nationwide. And This is utterly wrong...this country are becoming real f*#<&sts

I don't understand that. Then how come we can still play games like HellGate London, Dead Space or others like that ?
Or, do you mean banned under the age of 18?

no, r rated games aren't banned. r rated games don't even exist in australia. highest rating we've got is MA15+, which means anything that is too extreme for that rating gets refused classification and is banned from being sold.

Australian government is full of idiots.

Yeah, but most games can be bought on the internet. So that's total fail.

Every government is full of idiots.

money comes out of players in cod 6 instead of blood.

That is their way of forever mocking us for how much money we paid for their game after they screw us over with dedicated server removal.

I'm ok with this new law.. Movies are boring, and lame.. and Unimportant.

In fact the only actual effect this has on me what-so-ever is my baby millia might have a few less posters sold.. but that's nearly meaningless in the scale of it..

..and Austrailians don't need to be oogling over perfection anyways.

I'm ok with this new law.. Movies are boring, and lame.. and Unimportant.

In fact the only actual effect this has on me what-so-ever is my baby millia might have a few less posters sold.. but that's nearly meaningless in the scale of it..

..and Austrailians don't need to be oogling over perfection anyways.

how2makesense????

it continues to amaze me how much of an idiot you are, psilous

Don't you just love conservatism?

It has nothing to do with conservatism. For example, I am very conservative, but I disagree with government intervention in everything we do. Meaning, that I am conservative, but from a libertarian point of view.

Meanwhile, you can have liberals who very strongly favor government intervention, like the current US democratic party. These people are liberal but have an authoritarian point of view.

In this case, Michael Atkinson is a conservative who holds to an authoritarian viewpoint.

it continues to amaze me how much of an idiot you are, psilous

Meh.. It happens.

how2makesense????

I'm not a fan of media that isn't written or sung..

IMO, most movies shouldn't be made, rated R or not.

Maybe this will encourage people to stop making them.

Does the being able to see the cover of a R-rated movie offend people? I mean, wtf?

I can see where psilous is coming from. Maybe changing the covers of movies in Australia will kill off this multi-billion dollar industry.

Wait...what?

I'm not a fan of media that isn't written or sung.

You are aware that movies are written right? Also, does this mean you're not a video game fan? So, you can like, leave?

IMO, most movies shouldn't be made, rated R or not.

IMO, most people shouldn't be made, mentally retarded or not.

The world is slowly becoming like China everyday.

Pretty soon, even the internet would be heavily censored.

Google has already abandoned China.

Now, imagine a world without Google.

We'll all plunge back into the Dark Ages.

mad max was cool as

"i am the nightrider! i am a rocker i am a roller im an out of controller! i am the nightrider baby and we aint never commen back!"

they sure made em good back then
too bad they had to over dub the accents though because they were aparently not understandable

mour or less, i'm backing the opinion that maybe rated R movies won't get made as often.. at least (and now this is on a specifics level) not in austrailia..

I mean.. hell.. with hope.. that MAY even catch on.. and your 'million dollar' industry.. will turn into a 'poor bois fantasy' of seeing movies at his local dollar theater.. simply becuase the general public has grown out of visual media.. and moved on to a mour simpler time.. of actually doing sh*T

and no.. not particularly am I, a fan of video games in general at all..

they annoy me to the most bitter end..

if it's THAT big(gotry, cough) of a problem.. i suppose I can stop posting at twhl.. however, if its only urby's problem.. we can take this outside.. first person to walk back in through the front door wins the argument, and we drop it..

Psilous, I had to read that twice before I can properly understand what you were saying. Is using correct grammar, or even just partially correct grammar, really that difficult of a task? Heck, making it legible even.

On the whole movie thing, I'm not too concerned about it. It doesn't stop people from inquiring about movies they find in stores or learning about them over the net. Nor does it stop ordering over the net or anything particular like that. Though I do wonder if this is just a stepping stone to enforce a greater ban on R-rated movies and what not.

Now, imagine a world without Google.

We'll all plunge back into the Dark Ages.

No..... No.. No No No No No NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

What the heck are we supposed to use if Google goes? Yahoo? Fuck that crap!

The movie industry isn't going anywhere. It is still a strong today as it ever has been. I love a good book, and I love a good film. Both are wonderful mediums for telling a story, and no wee jumped up ladyboy is going to change that. Especially one who is obsessed with cartoons and can't even form a coherent sentence.

hmm Germany... There not aloud Red blood in games right? Just Black and Green?

How about a world without computers? I'm totally in. Computers only cause me grief.

So, what, Playing HL and meeting us was greif?

Is using correct grammar, or even just partially correct grammar, really that difficult of a task?

what's wrong with it?

/me pops some bubble gum

So, what, Playing HL and meeting us was grief?

I'd believe it.

--

Wait.. What in the F#^% is 'Yahoo' ?

So, what, Playing HL and meeting us was greif?

Those things cause me grief beyond measure.

So, what, Playing HL and meeting us was greif?

Not directly. But in a way, yes, it's a reminder that I could have found better things to do instead of spending at least half the time I'm awake using it. Having friends to go out with is one.

Is using correct grammar, or even just partially correct grammar, really that difficult of a task?

what's wrong with it?

What is not wrong with it? Your spelling is terrible, too. Most of the time your sentences make no sense. You live in an English-speaking country and I've never even visited one, still my English is better.

Back to topic, pleeeeeeeeeze

Pretty soon, even the internet would be heavily censored.

They were actually looking at installing a Australia-wide internet censoring program that would filter everything that went through Australian networks. I don't know about the progress on the program but if implemented, Australia's already poor quality networks would be slowed by at least 50%.

What the heck are we supposed to use if Google goes? Yahoo? Fuck that crap!

Wikipedia!!!!

As for the R rated stuff here in Australia, I agree with the R Rated ban on games in Australia, such violence in games is unnecessary. However, I believe movies should not receive the same scrutiny. In fact, these new laws are making it worse. How will people be able to tell wether a movie will suit their tastes? And how do you know it's not a porno or something? I think they are trying to abolish the R classification anyway. People will simply just give up on trying to pick out any R rated movies.

It's not just violence that gets the R rating, and there are elements of the world that children should not be exposed to, but adults can decide whether or not they want to experience it - the government shouldn't have any power over that.

It's people like hotdog (who think that all R rated games would give positive feedback for extremely violent behaviour) that are screwing it up for the rest of us.

I'm not just talking about sexual content or extreme violence - it's a combination of many minor elements. There are a lot of R rated movies that don't throw sex and blood in your face, but are still not suitable for people under 18.

I believe that as games mature as a medium, they will start to evolve in this direction. And us poor Australians are stuck playing censored fucking shit that ruins the entire experience.

Life is R rated. Stop hiding behind the 'games are for kids' excuse.

Video games shouldn't be censored. Not newspapers or paintings or the Internet either. They should be allowed to reflect the world that we live in. What world do we live in if not one with violence, sex, drugs and lies?

The only reason I support the ban on R rated games is because the difference is that you play a game, but you watch a movie. But I fully understand how everyone else feels. But considering that only a handful of games got rejected last year, I don't see it as much of a problem right now. If it were so, that dozens of games a year got rejected, then I would begin to scutinize the system.

I just don't see a great need for excessive adult content in video games. But that's my opinion. Not many people would agree with me but that's ok. I'll still love you anyway.

If you don't want to play it because of the content, then don't play it. I don't think people should have the power to take away everyone else's right to play something because THEY didn't like it.

I wholeheartedly agree with Darkie on this one. Personally I think the problem with R-rated games is that children get their hands on them and then the parents blame the game stores ant the industry in general when they find out. Then some of them try to have them banned because they're 'not suitable for children'. It's particularly infuriating when it's the parents themselves that get them for the children.

I also think this law is stupid. It would be alright if upon buying the DVD they gave you the real cover slip, although it doesn't make sense why they would pass this law at all. It's not the cover that's 18's, so why pass this law? Do they think that children won't know it's 18's because it's got a bland cover? A very obvious and recognisable one?

Wow, psilous. Ever considered a career path as a dictator?

I don't like movies.

Nobody else should get to enjoy them either!

Yeah, I think you'd do pretty good for yourself.

That doesn't even sound like me.