vg@rip.ax.lt

(Wall Street Journal) - Videogame designers at ZeniMax Media Inc.'s
Bethesda Softworks destroyed a virtual U.S. Capitol, Jefferson
Memorial and other landmarks in the Mature-rated "Fallout 3"
(Amazon: http://sn.im/Fallout3 ), which depicts the ruins of post-
apocalyptic Washington.

They didn't bother to obliterate the U.S. Supreme Court. But in the
real world, that's where the $10.5 billion videogame industry faces
its greatest threat. On Tuesday, the court's nine justices will
consider whether to strip First Amendment protection from violent
videogames that critics say appeal to the deviant interests of
children...

Continued: http://sn.im/VideoFreeSpeech

-= timm3r =-

I wonder how many violent crimes by America's youth can be linked to Arnie's
movies.

Doug Jacobs

-= timm3r =- <timm.3r.webmail@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder how many violent crimes by America's youth can be linked to Arnie's
> movies.

Forget that - we should see a sharp increase in violent crimes comitted by
children listening to The Lone Ranger on Radio some 70 years ago, right?
Or how about all those cowboy & indian shoot'em-up westerns on TV? Not to
mention Superman comic books and movie shorts...

I don't get it. This isn't the first time someone has tried to pass a
video game law. In fact this is The Governator's 4th such attempt in CA
alone! Each time previously, the courts have shot the laws down as
unconsitutional, violating the first amendment.

The ESA got so sick of wasting money defending the video game industry
from these ridiculous laws that it actually stated it would sue anyone
trying to pass a law against video games that has such a clear precedent.

So far, the ESA has successfully gotten millions in legal fees reimbursed
- that's millions of CA taxpayers dollars being wasted on boondoggles the
government already said was a waste of time!

And we wonder why CA is so badly in debt!

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.

-= timm3r =-

More from Kotaku...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39969372...science-games/

"Doug Jacobs" <djacobs@rawbw.com> wrote in message
news:HtCdnRtu0aLfNk3RnZ2dnUVZ_oudnZ2d@posted.rawba ndwidth...
> -= timm3r =- <timm.3r.webmail@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I wonder how many violent crimes by America's youth can be linked to
>> Arnie's
>> movies.
>
> Forget that - we should see a sharp increase in violent crimes comitted by
> children listening to The Lone Ranger on Radio some 70 years ago, right?
> Or how about all those cowboy & indian shoot'em-up westerns on TV? Not to
> mention Superman comic books and movie shorts...
>
> I don't get it. This isn't the first time someone has tried to pass a
> video game law. In fact this is The Governator's 4th such attempt in CA
> alone! Each time previously, the courts have shot the laws down as
> unconsitutional, violating the first amendment.
>
> The ESA got so sick of wasting money defending the video game industry
> from these ridiculous laws that it actually stated it would sue anyone
> trying to pass a law against video games that has such a clear precedent.
>
> So far, the ESA has successfully gotten millions in legal fees reimbursed
> - that's millions of CA taxpayers dollars being wasted on boondoggles the
> government already said was a waste of time!
>
> And we wonder why CA is so badly in debt!
>
> --
> It's not broken. It's...advanced.

Doug Jacobs

-= timm3r =- <timm.3r.webmail@gmail.com> wrote:
> More from Kotaku...
>
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39969372...science-games/

And it's full of the same old arguments... Why just games? Where do you
draw the line? Should we start banning books next? How do you define
"violent"?

The overall answer to all these questions is "just because...I said so."

It's yet another poorly written bill that, just like its 5 or 6
predecessors nationwide, will get shot down for being vague and
unconstitutional.


What annoys me is that the video game industry does more than all other
forms of consumer media combined to give parents the ability to control
their childrens' access. All game consoles now have parental lock-outs to
prevent games of a certain rating from even starting up. All games come
with a a content rating on both the back AND front of the package. Even
most DVDs don't even have a MPAA rating on them. You can go into Best Buy
and buy the "unrated" version of a movie which means in many cases that it
contains scenes of violence, nudity and/or sex that were cut from the
original theatrical release. Yet the proponents of this bill seem to think
it's OK for kids to be exposed to THAT sort of material, but violence in
video games is somehow going to turn them into sociopathic murderers?

I really wish there was a law such that if politicians insist on trying to
make laws that don't have a chance in heck of getting passed - and should
really know better to begin with - should have to cover the costs of the
court and the lawyers who were hired to defend against yet another waste
of time. Moreover the politicians should have to pay these fees out of
their own pockets - it's not right to punish the taxpayers for the
ignorance and incompetence of their elected officials.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.