With all of the furor surrounding the proposed FPB Amendment Bill, its easy to forget the effect the FPB currently has on gaming in South Africa.
Like did you know that stores could face a hefty fine for allowing underage gamers to play age-restricted games in their store?
“It is an offence to exhibit films, including games, to any person contrary to the age restriction imposed by the Film and Publication Board.”
“Only games or films classified as SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES, including those rated “A” and “PG”, may be publicly exhibited by way of trailers or “demos” unless access can be restricted to only people over the stated age restriction.”
That means stores could face a fine for even a totally innocuous trailer playing in the background if such game is age-restricted.
It’s not just limited to trailers either, “demo stations” are also liable under the Act, meaning retailers are not supposed to demo any games with the above restrictions to the South African public.
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The FPB is making themselves ridiculous. A vast lot of south africans will become criminals in terms of their various legislations. All their legislations are intended only to enrich themselves, not to protect company copyrights or artists. What else will the money collected for licensing, be used for, than to put into their own pockets. Even making a copy of a movie or cd or vinyl record for your own purposes, to have a backup, is illegal in terms of the FPB. I myself, have spend a lot of time to clean my vinyls, to get them static free and clean. Then played it while recording it. Then used software to remove all static and other unwanted sounds, and ripped it onto a cd. I own the record, so why cant I make a decent copy of it for my own personal use only. No one is losing money because of me making good (better) backups of my stuff. But according to FPB I am a criminal for doing so.