The Cellar - Games Cancelled in Athens

Quote:

Greek Court Overturns Game Ban

10-SEP-02

A court in Greece has thrown out court cases against two Internet café owners, the first victims of a new Greek law banning video and computer games.

The two cases pitted the Greek government against net-café owners Yiannis Kifonidis and Christos Iordanidis, both of which were accused of letting people play Counterstrike and other online PC games in their cafés. The case was the first test of Law 3037, which outlawed all "electronic and electromechanical games...in any public or private place" and fined violators up to $5000 for offenses.

The law was part of a campaign by the Greek government against gambling machines and other illegal devices in arcades and Internet cafés.

Fortunately for common sense, a judge in the Greek city of Thessaloniki went against the wishes of the government, ruling the law unconstitutional and calling for major revisions to its vaguely-worded contents. The ruling was cheered by a group of 300 gamers gathered outside the Thessaloniki courthouse, who spent all day chanting "No to censorship on the Internet" by the entrance. Nice to see the common people standing for their rights.