South Australia vs. R-Rated Movies

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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.

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Source

Go Australia go! This is the same Attorney-General who's managed to prevent an M rating for games, thus keeping many of them out of the country, by the way.

God dammit South Australia, what the hell is wrong with you?

You support this man? What would the world be without grand theft auto? :moan:

Does this apply to all of Australia or just South Australia? To me it sounds a bit like a curse-filter :)

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Originally Posted by Hazir

Does this apply to all of Australia or just South Australia? To me it sounds a bit like a curse-filter :)

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The comment about people shopping interstate to get their movies implies that this law is South Australia only.


The lack of an R18 rating for games is nation-wide thanks to this guy though.

The conservatives in SA have had to wait a long time for political power, now they have it they are going all the way. :down: This is the same state that introduced laws making association a crime - which passed and are now in effect.

If you socialize with criminals in SA, you are now a criminal. Fucking insane abuse of power which people will come to regret when it directly effects them.

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Originally Posted by termite

The conservatives in SA have had to wait a long time for political power, now they have it they are going all the way. :down: This is the same state that introduced laws making association a crime - which passed and are now in effect.

If you socialize with criminals in SA, you are now a criminal. Fucking insane abuse of power which people will come to regret when it directly effects them.

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Eh, any links to how that works? The way you describe it, it indeed sounds insane.

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Originally Posted by termite

If you socialize with criminals in SA, you are now a criminal. Fucking insane abuse of power which people will come to regret when it directly effects them.

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I hear the've outlawed poking people in the eye too. :think:

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Originally Posted by termite

If you socialize with criminals in SA, you are now a criminal. Fucking insane abuse of power which people will come to regret when it directly effects them.

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That's just ... outlandish. :bulb:

How do they define association?

If they can provide proof that you were sat at a table in a pub having a beer with a wanted criminal - that's enough?


EDIT: We need the bulb smiley. :)

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Originally Posted by Timbuk2

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Originally Posted by termite

EDIT: We need the bulb smiley. :)

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http://home.earthlink.net/~mybigpicture/bulb.gif



edit: could be reduced in size and eliminate halo if there is interest. http://home.earthlink.net/~mybigpicture/thumbup.gif

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Originally Posted by termite

If you socialize with criminals in SA, you are now a criminal. Fucking insane abuse of power which people will come to regret when it directly effects them.

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So then the solution to the conservative problem is to bribe criminals into associating with them?

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Originally Posted by Wraith

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Go Australia go! This is the same Attorney-General who's managed to prevent an M rating for games, thus keeping many of them out of the country, by the way.

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Yeah! Finally, a modern country more socially backward than the US! Woo hoo! :up: :gaga:

I can see why they would do this. They wish to protect their population from viewing obscene material. Many countries make shops have a grey cover on pornographics magazines so children do not accidentally see them. But I do not think they have thought this through.

Most 18+ films do not have questionable covers. Often the reason a film is 18+ is because of obscene language used or pornographic scenes within in the film. It is not often on the box.

If they don't have questionable covers, why is there a law being made to obscure all of the non-questionable covers? :noob:

The law is to obscure all covers, regardless of questionability. This looks like a ploy to destroy the market for R18 movies.

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

....that's crazy. Not to mention magazine covers in truck stops and 7-11s. Some of those are fairly racy.

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Originally Posted by Hazir

Eh, any links to how that works? The way you describe it, it indeed sounds insane.

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http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1...spark-violence

Only problem is, what is being dubbed Anti-bikie legislation does not even mention bikies, it mentions criminal organisations. It sets vague parameters for what constitutes a criminal organisation, and has no requirement to make public the evidence for why they are declared criminal.

The way I understand it the SA model was a failure for that reason, it was ruled invalid by the Supreme Court. They are however passing similar legislation in other states. As the article mentioned, NSW passed their legislation after a public brawl at Sydney airport which resulted in a Comancheros club member being killed.

In the hysteria around the incident, people accepted the legislation.

When the local sports club is dubbed a "criminal organisation" because 6 or more of its members are criminals then the average Joe might just pull their heads out of their arse and say WTF? But it will be too late.

When society runs out of criminals it makes new laws to make new criminals...in this case under the guise of getting the allegedly untouchable criminals.

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Originally Posted by Wraith

This looks like a ploy to destroy the market for R18 movies.

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Harrr