Using Steam in SA "unlawful" says Film and Publications board

That would be stealing would it be not?

But if its illegal why have they not acted on! I mean this is not the release year for steam in SA. Not too sure how long steam has been active in SA but more or less 10years I would guess.
 
he issue of seizing digital products is also interesting, as there are privacy concerns.
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I was actually thinking about that now. What are they going to do, seize your hard drive or take your steam account? Lol...
 
It seriously looked like the bloke being interviewed didn't quite grasp the concept of digital distribution :/
 
It seems the guy has no clue what digital distribution is. Customs is going to seize digital games, yeah right.
 
I will be following up on this issue. There is a legal precedent for making copies of certain data contained on a hard drive for use as evidence in court. It is unlikely that they will seize an entire hard drive. It also unlikely that they will do anything at all. Still, it is interesting to note that unless the content has been rated, it is technically illegal to own and use.
 
It's just another example of how clueless and backwards the law-makers in our country is. Steam and other digital distribution systems have been around for more than a decade now; you would swear it was only during that interview that they actually realised things have been going past them that they haven't been able to stare at.

Bets are on that someone there went afterwards to look up "digital" in the dictionary.
 
The person being interviewed didn't grasp the question. He/she is under the impression that it is media that is physically imported and that it is also actual CD/DVDs being bought. The fact that they mention that customs has detained imports before shows this. I would like to see them detain my downloads! Haha!

Anyways, I don't think this is such a major issue to be honest. The issue here is that the games are not rated for age restrictions or lack thereof. I don't see the problem though as most games on Steam are imported anyways and are thus rated locally. So what is the issue if you buy it digitally or the actual retail discs? For that matter, if I import a movie from overseas, is that illegal? I often order my Blurays from Amazon.co.uk, simply because they are really cheap, but that means my disc hasn't passed by the FPB.

Either way, I really don't think this is such a major issue. If it is really something that needs to be fixed, it really shouldn't be too hard.
 
It wont be a big problem. They cant even stop murderers, cyber crime and urinating in public so how will they chase down my hard drive? Just another dumb law that the government can't really enforce. 2 thumbs up for job creation.

Whoot!!! Whoot!!!
 
Well, I suppose they can either block steam at all, forcing ISP to do so anyway, like with porn sites in the Arab world, or only arrange with Steam to only allow games approved(rated) by the FPB.
The majority of games do receive a FSB rating, so that should not be a problem.

On the other hand, I can view pornographic sites on the internet if I want to, that did not pass the FSB rating, while magazines like Playboy and so on have to get approval.
 
OMG How fucking stupid is the FPB!!!! :mad:.

Steam are legally signed as a distributor in digital retail... FPB mustn't come here with their shit and try to take it away from us, when they do not even understand the law themselves... It's reasons like this that make me wanna go over to their building, hand them a notice of eviction and tell them to GTFO, before the building its blown up and made way for a super gaming mall...

Seriously do those people, actually understand how steam even works?? My guess would be NOT!! because why?? Because they are not making a profit out any of the sales that goes through this country, when in actual fact it's an International and digital purchase...

I want them to try and stop me, and we will see how much worse the piracy ratings shoot up... :mad:

Fucking retards!!
 
LOL, Sigh, this country's "Brains" are really really going down the crapper quicker than a 7.9 on Richtes Scale :'(
 
I hope our messages actually get passed on to this stupid board!!!! because they need some public slapping from us and told to go mind their own fscking business...
 
MG: Are these digital distributors in violation of South African law?

FPB: The sale of unclassified media content, including gaming, into South Africa, is unlawful. The practice which you describe appears to be unlawful and under similar circumstances, shipments have been detained on our behalf by the SA Revenue Services (Customs).
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LOL, so they will detain my internet download... at customs? :wtf:
 
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