The fine is paid to the Crown, which means it goes to the Treasury to be distributed like all other fines or taxes. So while the cynic in me says ScoMo will piss it up the wall, it does mean that there's potentially 3million extra for a school in the Northen Territory, secular counsellors in schools, or climate research at the CSIRO or some benefits for Returned Servicemen.Saelune said:Hence the "or whatever" part. I wont pretend to know more about a legal system of a country I am not part of, but it just looks like Australia profiting on something they dont deserve, and only because its against a company that profits on things they dont deserve, no one will actually care. Maybe if Australia was better to gamers, this wouldnt bother me so much.Gordon_4 said:I don't think what the ACCC did qualifies as a lawsuit: it was them basically telling the Crown Prosecution Service that Valve we're breaking the law and the CPS summoning them to appear before the Federal Court. If we (Australian gamers) still wanted to sue them directly for reparations, that's still on the table.Saelune said:My point is, this lawsuit or whatever benefitted no one who deserved it.Gordon_4 said:A class action lawsuit requires people to file their grievances directly. In this case, if I read it rightly, the ACCC investigated some complaints made about a business operating in Australia contrary to Australian Comsumer Law and took Valve to court on behalf of the Crown but not the people. Valve have been fined, in the same way you get fined for speeding, they have NOT been made to pay damages. I'm pretty sure we tried to do the same to Adobe a while back too.Saelune said:This should have been a class-action lawsuit situation, where eligible people can claim a percentage of the fine. Usually not much, but more than nothing.Subatomic said:The Australian government gets the money because that's how fines work people... if you get a speeding ticket, you don't pay the other drivers on the road you endangered either, do you?
This does nothing. Valve is being punished for something they already fixed, and nothing else will change because of it, so Australia basically extorted Valve the way I see it. Now, Valve is a greedy company that probably deserves to be fined a bunch of money, but not when it s just to pay off the government of a country that itself is known to essentially abuse their own gaming community.