Dear Mr Stroligo,

Just to give you a little update on the situation.

The whole thing started back in February 2002 when it came to public attention that a member of the Parliament who is also a member of the leading party PASOK, Mr. Hrisanthakopoulos, was caught by a TV camera playing on illegal electronic gambling machines. As a result he was promptly kicked out of PASOK.

It was absolutely certain that the simple Greek citizen would react with indignation to this case. The case of Mr. Hrisanthakopoulos simply made the problem known to the government, which then felt threatened.

(It should be noted here that such games were already illegal according to the law.)

At that point the government admitted that it was very difficult to distinguish which games where purely used for entertainment and which were used for gambling, so it decided to get rid of them all.

Government spokesman Christos Protopapas said on February 21st:

"We don't want to have illegal gambling in Greece. We are banning all electronic games. We need a clean decision...and the decision is no electronic games. The measure is a tough one but it is the only effective one, as ordinary electronic games can easily be converted into illegal games by the owners of such facilities"

At that point it was unclear if the draft bill would only prohibit coin-ops - arcade games, or all types of games including computer games. On February 22nd Mr Protopapas said that the government will examine carefully all the aspects of the bill so that internet cafes and computers will not be affected.

More than three months later, on the 30th of May of 2002, the draft bill was brought to the Parliament by the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mr Fotiadis, who had the sole responsibility for the matter. The bill stated clearly that all games supported by electrical, electromechanical and software means are banned from public places. The government's response to questions about the reasons including computer games in the ban, was that a lot of the operators of bars or cafes with illegal gambling machines, were to replace them with PCs and the appropriate gambling software.

The bill was discussed in the parliament from the 9th until the 17th of July 2002.

In the Parliament, a member of the opposition party, Mr. Katsaros, expressed the concern that, since the law prohibits gaming only in public places, it would only be a matter of time before the owners of illegal gambling machines moved whatever machines they were using for gambling (coin-ops, PCs, consoles) from their stores in private places, like appartments, private properties, private clubs. Mr Fotiadis agreed, so the law was modified to include every private place as well. In my opinion, nobody from the members of the parliament realized or could foresee the effects that this would have for PC Games, Internet Games, game consoles, etc, simply because they are not familiar with that side of technology.

The consensus between the members of the Parliament at that point was: WOW, with the same law, we both combat illegal gambling and at the same time we prevent our youngsters from wasting their time on video games. Fantastic!

Following the vote by the Greek Parliament on July 17th, the bill became a law on July 30th after it was officially published in Greece's Governmental newspaper.

In my opinion, the Greek Government banned computer and console games in an attempt to stop illegal gambling. The point is that although the government admitted that it is a tough measure they could not realize that banning computer games and consoles would be a major issue. Who cares about these stupid games! Until today - more than a month after the law was published - nobody from the government will admit that there is a problem and try to rectify the situation!

Internet café owners are being arrested and fined for allowing Counter-Strike, Age of Empires, or Chess on Yahoo! all over Greece for the past week. A store that belongs in our chain of internet cafes was closed down because our clients were playing the above games.

The Greek Internet Café Union responds by suing public services, cell phone users, gamers that play in their own house. As you can see, the whole situation is turning into a rather funny situation - except for Internet café owners. Yes, the police are not breaking into our houses (still), but The Greek Internet Café Union is encouraging its members to sue even each other for private use of a computer or cell phone for gaming, so that the full implications of the law can be seen even by the bureaucratic and technologically impaired politicians.

If you need any further information on the above, I'll be glad to help.

Best regards

Nikos Kakayanis
Managing Director
THE WEB SA
---------------------------

Ionos Dragoumi 24
54625 Thessaloniki
Greece
Tel. +30 310 250442
www.theweb.gr

Additional Web sources:

(It's all Greek to me :))

Initial statement from government
PCs initially not to be affected
Debate in Parliament I
Debate in Parliament II
Debate in Parliament III
Debate in Parliament IV
Greek Internet Cafe association

Nikos Kakayanis

Ed. commment: I can't say those on my side of the Atlantic are exactly busting down my doors over this issue.

I don't see how people can live in cyberspace all the time and then turn around and think Greece is a million miles away and certainly nothing to be concerned about.

Whatever our nationality may be; we are all citizens of cyberspace, and what is a threat to some is a threat to all.

Not in the sense a Hitler was or a Saddam Hussein could be, but what happens in Greece today could happen in your hometown tomorrow. There are certainly people out there who think games create homicidal maniacs and they'll use Greece as an example of what can be done to solve the problem.

This is only a guess, but I'd bet Greek gamers never thought anything could come of this, that certainly the government wouldn't dare take away their right to go down to the Internet cafe and play a bit.

But they did, and there's some people there spending some cell time just for playing a game or letting somebody do that.

Yet some, maybe most of those reading this think the U.S. government can't possibly ever do anything to them for stealing. Can't happen to you? Those Greek gamers didn't think it could happen to them, either.

Do you have to be in a jail cell before you say, "Well, maybe this could happen to me?"

George Santayana once said "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

Martin Niemoller said something along the lines of:

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

One of the big lessons of the past is "the organized always beat the unorganized." Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

In the U.S., the RIAA and the other content providers know the truth of what Niemoller said, and are counting on you continuing to stay dumb, delusional and disorganized. They're putting plenty of time, effort and money into protecting what they consider to be their rights.

Yet so many out there think they need do nothing to beat them, then pat themselves on the back and say how smart they are.

I think some people are going to be in for the shock of their lives in the next few years, when the real world steps in and crumples their own little world.

Ed