The Australian government is looking to start charging classification fees for apps and games amid concerns that Apple, Google and others are avoiding millions of dollars in classification fees. These fees range from $470 to $2040 and if brought into force it is likely that these fees would have to be passed onto the developers.
In reality it would not make sense to start charging at these levels because it would kill off the industry and likely see a rebuttal from the big manufacturers which would only do harm to the economy. One to keep an eye on though. Thanks to Joel.
From Theaustralian- “THE Labor Party has flagged it will shut down a major loophole in the mobile phone industry.
The loophole has allowed games and applications to go online without any kind of classification.
Amid debate on internet and video game censorship, it has emerged that thousands of smartphone games and applications are being sold or distributed without going through a classification check, in contravention of the National Classification Scheme.
The largest distributor of smartphone applications, Apple, is bypassing millions of dollars in fees, as classification fees range from $470 to $2040 for computer games, costing the government revenue.
More than 220,000 applications are available in Australia for download.
At a conservative estimate, one-third of them are games, suggesting compliance costs would be in the millions.”
Agree, Apple and Google would avoid Australia like the plague. Government would back down and we carry on as now.
“Government would back down and we carry on as now.”
I don’t know about that, the ALP are being stubborn fools IMO, they will just destroy smart-phones in Australia for consumers and try and blame Google and Apple.. And our apathetic public will say very little, just like the minor complaints about the National Internet Filter which the ALP are also pushing to bring us in line with China and Iran..
From a government which is still adamant on introducing a net filter and refuses classification of games over M (in other words – “refused classification), trying to classify apps would be like trying to classify every single internet site.
The government isn’t trying to be a nanny state and treating us like kiddies. More like a convict country (like the “good ol’ days) and treating us like a bunch of crooks.
At least the Aussie government can be honest enough to call a soil moving implement a “soil moving implement”! (calling it’s citizens a bunch of ….)