Australia's War on Kombat

If you haven't heard by now then... well, it's probably coz i think i was too slack to report it, but Mortal Kombat is officially banned in Australia. This isn't too surprising, but what was a little surprising was a story that hit the internet saying people caught importing the game would be facing up to $110,000 fines. This seems a bit harsh, so i recently looked into the story (it's 1:30am and i'm bored, don't judge me). The first problem was that every version of the story i could find was directly quoted from Gamespot, and with all due respect to gamespot, i'd trust wikipedia before i'd trust their research. Delving deep into Customs documentation (at least as far as i could go while still making heads or tails of it) i found that it IS indeed illegal to import any game rated as RC by the classification board. It's right in the document Gamespot quoted (Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 - Section 4A-1A-F) however the quoted document doesn't actually make any mention of penalties. A quick search (or following this link) reveals a notice from Customs that shows a familiar figure... People can in fact be fined $110,000 for importing prohibited items, in quantities of 25 or more... oops. The fine can be given to people caught importing large quantities of prohibited items or if they have intent of selling, distributing or exhibiting said items. So what WILL happen if you're caught importing a copy of Mortal Kombat for your own personal use... In short, I don't know. I failed to turn up any relevant documentation on the penalties, but people in the past have had their games destroyed and warned not to try again, with rare cases of people being fined, but nothing as extreme as $110k. So for those considering importing it the consequences are not nearly as bad as stated by gamespot's source (who likely misunderstood the question, or just wanted to spook people from trying), however it IS still illegal and if caught Customs is in their right to hand out penalties. IMPORT AT YOUR OWN RISK.