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    Legals in Aus?

    What a great site abbywinter.com is! This is my first post but I have been a subscriber for quite some time now.

    I have a query which has been on my mind for quite a white and though my fellow AW subscribers may have had similar thoughts. Maybe even the AW team knows the answer to this.

    Does anyone know what is strickly legal (or illegal) in Australia, and Victoria in particular, with respect to subscribing to internet adult sites which are mostly outside Aus? I'm ABSOLUTELY NOT referring to sites which contain underage, violent, animals, etc etc but over-18 mainly hetrosexual adult porn - of a similar content which you can generally buy on DVD from your local adult shop? I'm also not referring to copying to transmitting/distributing anything, just subscribing, downloading and storing for personal use.

    Last year in Aus there was a lot of publicity surrounding the subscribing and downloading of internet porn - a lot of people got arrested. Admittedly, sites which had underage porn were targetted and (again) this is NOT what I'm referring to, but the media had a field day with it and I would suspect made most internet porn subscribers get a little nervous.

    Someone mentioned to me that all adult material bought into this country has to be classified by the censor. Obviously material downloaded from an international site bypasses that process.

    I did a search of Aus legal sites a while back but couldn't find specifics on this.

    Has anyone looked into this in Aus ??

    #2
    Porn and Legality

    Porn in Australia is heavily censored. You cant easily buy or rent hardcore magazines or videos. The best place to get "hardcore" stuff is from the ACT where the law is different for whatever reason. You can as far as I know import porn that is not violent or involves children animals etc (I havent personally put this to the test so I am not sure what Customs actually does). As for getting it off the interent then similar rules apply. The crackdown that occurred last year was a worldwide thing against child porn. there are some websites that are "nudist" in outlook and do not contain sexual activity but do contain child nudity. I think these are okay but many states have changed the law recently so....

    As far as the internet goes you can buy or download anything you like except the above. You cannot also run porn websites in Aus so that is why i expect that this site is hosted in the USA.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Creative1
      The best place to get "hardcore" stuff is from the ACT where the law is different for whatever reason.
      because thats where all the politicians are.....easy.
      arent brothels legal there too??
      politicians are scum

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Creative1
        You cant easily buy or rent hardcore magazines or videos. The best place to get "hardcore" stuff is from the ACT where the law is different for whatever reason.
        Could you tell us ignorant guys what ACT is, please?

        Lxm

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          #5
          australian capital territory..... its like australias washington i guess.
          its where parliament is.

          Comment


            #6
            Canberra!

            The most boringly designed city in Australia!

            Comment


              #7
              Ah, ok, I understand. Thanks for the infos.

              I understand also that in this boring city the laws seem to be more liberal than in the rest of the continent.
              So, in Australia everybody is equal, well,... some are a bit more equal.

              Lxm

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                #8
                And I'm sure, they need the brothels only for the foreign politicians who are visiting.

                Lxm

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                  #9
                  Thanks Creative1.

                  Not that I've been to Tassie recently, but here in Victoria you can openly buy X-rated videos and magazines over the counter at adult stores. Club-X must have 15 or 20 stores around Melbourne alone where this stuff is available. I believe the only restriction that is enforced is that no material must be visible from the outside. I also believe it is officially illegal to sell but it is not enforced. Legally, you can only buy it from the ACT. Crazy !

                  So I guess possessing adult material from either mail order or a shop or the internet is ok (excluding underage, violence, etc).

                  I'm surprised, given the media attention the child porn crackdown received last year, there wasn't a more public awareness campaign about the legalities of subscribing to, and downloading over-18, non-violent sites. Maybe it IS all legal to do so, but the authorities don't want to advertise it - too hard to control.

                  Interesting....

                  Comment


                    #10
                    i dont know of any stores that sell em in hobart, but there was a store in launceston that sold them......got busted for it too if my memory serves me.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Hm... some misinformation here.

                      (1) Printed material (books, mags), and video material (DVDs, VHS tapes) need to be classified by the (federal) office of film and literiture classification (OFLC) (http://www.oflc.gov.au/ they have a great site aimed at consumers like you). Each item is reviewed by a team of four people, and they kinda vote on what teh rating should be. Submitters can appeal decisions and get them re-reviewed (as happenned recently with indie film "9 Songs", originally rated X, then appealled and rated R).

                      For films (and computer games), they are rated G, PG, M, MA, R and X (and RC, refused classification).

                      For printed material, it's rated "restricted" Category 1, or Category 2. You need to be over 18 in Australia to buy either. "Picture" magazine here in Australia is rated "unrestricted" (M) for example. Anyone can buy it, but it's recommended for 15+

                      "Cat 1" as it's referred to in the biz is more explicit stuff, but no penetration, "Cat 2" include penetration. If this site were a magazine, we'd be a mixture of cat 1 and 2, and nothing would be "RC". The publication as a whole gets the classification for the most explcit part, of course.

                      Webistes are a totally different kettle of fish. These are regulated (I use the term loosely) by the ABA (Australian broadcasting authority, http://www.aba.gov.au/). These guys do a good job, and luckily for most people, they generally leave it up to websites to regulate themselves. They have to act on complaints they receive, but they can only act on sites that are hosted here in Australia. If we hosted here, and someone complained, we'd be issued a take-down notice.

                      (2) It is a crime for any shop in any state in Australia (Territories are exempt) to sell material (well, DVD's) that has been rated X. As we see above, anecdotal evidence indicates this is poorly enforced... But actually, it's not.

                      Police have to act on complaints, and there are Christian groups around that complain to cops saying "that shop is selling x rated material". They cops raid the shop, confiscate and X material they are holding, fine them between $5000 and $10,000, and that's that. For most shops, the fine is a pain, but not worth stopping selling X rated content, cos they make a lot more money from it than they get in fines.

                      It's not illegal for someone to BUY X rated DVDs from these shops (which is why you're also allowed to buy X rated DVD's from the ACT), so you have nothing to worry about. You SHOULD only by material that has been rated by the OFLC, however. Not doing that is risky - you'd not know if you were buying child porn or not, for example.

                      (3) Dogster99, you'd be referring to operation Auxin, that was only concerned with underage pornographic content - lots of people were arrested last year. Underage stuff is not legal regardless of the media it's distributed on.

                      Someone mentioned to me that all adult material bought into this country has to be classified by the censor.
                      That's not really true. The crimes involve selling it (or, having an intention to sell it - importing a box of 500 un-rated DVD's, say), not owning it (unless, of course, ANY material of that nature is not legal, say, beastiality).

                      There is no onus on you as a guy buying a risque DVD from the US that's legal in the US to get it classified. I have ever heard stories of customs guys doing ad hoc classifiying, I guess if they had a truly questionable DVD (as opposed to a possibly questionable one), they'd report it to the federal police.

                      I hear-tell they spot check incoming items, they do not bust open every package.

                      Porn in Australia is heavily censored.
                      I don’t agree with this at all, but I guess that depends what you're comparing it to.

                      a

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Vid Dude
                        Canberra!

                        The most boringly designed city in Australia!
                        Being a Canberra person I would have a different view, Canberra is a bloody great place to live and very well designed, and Canberra is the place where the rest of Australia send their Scum pollies. We and the Nothern Territory are actually very under represented by our very national constitution! We only get two senators, who are only allowed to have 3 year terms, when the rest of the states have more, cannot think of the numbers and they get 6 year terms. Tasmania is the most represented in the senate, they get the same number of seats as every other state.

                        As for why our laws are different that is very easy. We until recently (1989 anyway) didn't have our own local government and the ACT was administered by the federal Gov. Clearly the feds had better things to worry about (and their were no votes) so when the narrow minded pollied in other states were restricting their laws nothing changed in the ACT. The NT was once just as liberal when it comes to porn, but now not quite to the same extent. In the ACT its ok to sell X rated movies and the higher classifed mags, but in other states you can only buy R rated stuff. The club X's in Melb if selling X are breaking the law.

                        The prostitution industry the ACT is a leader and its very well regulated. Brothels are only allowed in industrial areas. The way Canberra is designed you won't find factories etc in the suburbs they are in one of our three industrial suburbs, the famous Fyshwick, Mitchell and Hume which is why its easy to seperate them from the suburbs. I'm good friends with a girl who works and funnily enough business does pick up just a little when the houses sit, but not by all that much. Besides it isn't the pollies either, its mostly their scum hanger-ons who get up to no good with the hookers.

                        As for bring porn or for that matter any media that hasn't been classified it is against the law. If you get caught with unclassified stuff you can pay to have it classified otherwise it gets confiscated. In reality though as Abby said they only really get upset with commercial quantities, same too for pirate DVD's etc.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally Posted by Vid Dude
                          Canberra!

                          The most boringly designed city in Australia!
                          Also being a Canberra person of 30+ years I also support Jimmys veiw.
                          Maybe its an example that boring people get bored when removed from their own "exiting" environment.
                          I have travelled around much of Oz and a few trips O.S. and I dont think Ive been bored anywhere Ive been.
                          Ive even remember having a good time at Tibooburra, population 150 people, and the name means "heap of rocks" (Tibooburra,a small town in western New South Wales on the edge of the desert, for those unfamiliar with Ausrtralian geography)
                          Maybe Im just a more exiting and exitable person than Vid Dude.
                          Sorry, for the insults Vid Dude, but ...............

                          Its also a bit of a puzzel that the most "boring" city in Australia has the most liberal social laws and atitudes in the country, which is really the point of my reply.

                          Allan

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I've never actually been to Canberra. But that's because so many people have told me how boringly designed it is.

                            I don't mean it's a boring city, just how they designed it to be so neat and tidy and lots of straight lines.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Vid Dude
                              I've never actually been to Canberra. But that's because so many people have told me how boringly designed it is.

                              I don't mean it's a boring city, just how they designed it to be so neat and tidy and lots of straight lines.
                              It can be a boring and 'cold' place to live if you want it a bit more livley, but its not a bad place at all, and if you want excitment Sydney is only 280km away and I've driven to Melbourne at the speed limit in 6 hours! Come and pay us a visit sometime you may be surprised.

                              As for the design I would call it less than boring, its very well laid out and planned (well the bits before self government anway). The central area's were designed by an American named Walter Burley Griffen (excuse the spelling) and is quite a good design. He also layed out a suburb on the North Shore of Sydney, cannot recall its name but you can see the similarities to Canberra.

                              Canberra has been basterdised over the years but the basics remain, and ties Capital hill, where parliament house is with the city. Out of the city Canberra was designed as several self contained towns, all centred around a town centre. The theory in the 60's and 70's when this was going on was that people wouldn't need to ever leave their own town. Canberra is known as the bush capital for all our open spaces and bush surrounds. It was this bush that allowed the bushfires a few years back to penetrate so deep into the suburbs around Kambah. Since self government the new towns of Tuggeranong and Gunhahlin have turned out like shit, with poor connecting roads and suburbs with small blocks and norrow slow twisting roads. I am lucky I live in a new suburb, but in an old town, so still have a smallish block, but have the advantages of good connecting roads and shopping infrstructure.

                              It so easy to get around by car its no funny. Just today I had to go from one end of town to the other with a few side trips so I ended up doing 150km in 3 hours.

                              Now you guys have a had a few grils from Canberra before, maybe another trip might be in order. There is a local photgrapher who has an art 'porn' web site with mostly Canberra girls, (not sure if I can do this but will anyway the site is www.artfemme.com) and they look pretty good, and there are plenty more down here, and some good places to shoot too. Come in the middle of winter it would be good for some out door shots, imagine rolling around in a nice cold early morning frost!

                              Comment


                                #16
                                hey Jimmy

                                I agree, I like Canberra. I have lived there for a few months, and definitely appreciated the infrastructure compared to Sydney or Melbourne.

                                I was interested to see the artfemme, never really considered shooting in Canberra, but you're right, we should for sure. Thanks for the tip.

                                a

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  You and the team will always be welcome in town Abby!

                                  Now getting even more off topic you can really see the difference between your site and Artfemme. I would recomend to anyone who likes the look of the girls to just take out the trial subscription to down load them but do not go for a periodic subscription. He doesn't say how often the pics are updated and they aren't done all that often. He went through flurry of adding 1 or 2 per week, but he hasn't updated for about 3 weeks. Clearly not good value if the material doesn't get updated. I've also found with the picture sets you will see that even though the girls a clearly different the poses etc are much the same which makes it boring. Good on him for giving it a burl though.

                                  Not sure how you do it Abby because I wouldn't think it would be easy to keep things fresh and interesting but you and the team do!

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    For films (and computer games), they are rated G, PG, M, MA, R and X (and RC, refused classification).
                                    Just to clarify, R & X rated computer games are always rated RC so they can't be legally sold here. I love living in a nanny state!

                                    Comment

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