Jack Thompson Tasked With Writing Law

Gamespot's Rumor Control column this week handles the usual spurious talk that swirls around the game news sites. One (sadly) factual rumour they report on details gamer-hunting lawyer Jack Thompson's new role as a lawmaker. From the article: "Repeatedly, Thompson has called for states to pass laws criminalizing the sale of M-for-Mature rated games to minors. Now it appears he may get the chance to pen such a law himself. In an e-mail sent out Thursday, Thompson says he has 'been asked by the Office of the Governor of the State of Florida, Jeb Bush, to draft and submit to him and to Florida legislators a bill that will prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors.' ... When queried by GameSpot for more details, he would only say that he is the only person thus far who has been asked to submit a bill to the governor's office about M-rated game sales. He did not offer details about what kind of penalties the bill would prescribe for offenders or whether or not said penalties would be imposed solely on the clerks selling the games or also on the establishment selling the game and/or the game's publisher."

Comments

Thanks...I'll be leaving the US now...it's over.

[sgant]

I give up. The religious idiots have won. I give up. I'm moving out of this theocracy and going to live somewhere else.

Question though, what are my options? Where is a decent place to live without the christian assholes that want to run every ones lives? I've lived in this country for 43 years and even served in the military. Yet I've seen the christian morons take greater and greater control over my country. Especially when they've made it known that their top priority now is porn and videogames...no folks, not the terrorists or drug dealers or the other criminals. Porn and videogames are the true evil Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has listed. He wants to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults. You know, just your basic humping and pumping. Next on the list will be videogames. I guess they've won the war on terror. They are saying porn is bad because it victimizes women. That they are the ones that are hurt through regular porn. So I suppose that gay porn between two men is ok with them?

Yeah, I know, this is flamebait...troll...whatever. Mod me down, I don't care anymore. So again, goodbye America. I'm sick of your bullshit and I want out. Now, where to go?

Well...

[buffer-overflowed]

I personally see no problem in restricting the sale of "adult" material to minors. Neither does the Supreme court.

If the freakin' game lobby would get a clue and do what the movie industry did, and actually hype that angle up rather than being adamantly opposed to any fines for the sale of this material to minors, then maybe you wouldn't need to worry about Jack Thompson.

A few "Gamestop fires employee for selling GTA w/o ID check" headlines would do it. But nooo...

I also fail to see how restricting the sale of violent(and or/sexual) games to minors in any way infringes on the right to free speech as held by the SCOTUS, nor how it would:
A. Keep the games out of the hands of minors whose parents allow them to play such things.
B. Keep adults from playing these games.
C. Keep these games from being made if the guys pushing for the legislation really DON'T have a point.

If gamers don't give up the 12-yos should be allowed to go into Gamestop and buy a copy of Tentacle-fucker 3 - Revenge of the Overfiend(at the extreme end) angle with no fines for the store OR the guy that sold it then they're not going to get a voice in how the law is constructed and the chances it's going to be whacked out insane increase. Because it's GOING to happen.

And there are upshots to it you probably can't even fathom.

Re:Well...

[Psmylie]

This doesn't need to be legislated. Community groups of concerned parents should work with the retailers to make sure that it is company policy to not sell M or AO rated games to minors. When you have a law to do this instead, it's censorship.

Movie theaters voluntarily keep minors out of R-rated movies, sort of an unofficial social contract. It work pretty well, for the most part.. most kids can't see R-rated movies without a parent, and if one does, then maybe someone gets fired but nobody goes to jail or is fined. That's what we need for game stores. Not censorship. The rating system already in place is sufficient, in my opinion.

Re:Well...

[buffer-overflowed]

No, it's not censorship unless you dictate content. Children form exceptions to our various rights according to the SCOTUS. They can't drink, drive cars, smoke cigarettes, view pornography, wear what they want, say what they want, have sex with who they want, etc. No one is dictating content outside of the industry(yet). They're dictating what is appropriate for sale to a group of minors. And if you have a problem with that, you should also have a problem with kids NOT being able to buy pornography(at the minimum) because it's the same damn thing at it's heart.

This isn't obscenity laws applying to adults here. We're not talking about the miller test here. So STFU about censorship, it doesn't help your case any.

If you didn't know there wasn't a law regulating theater owners, you'd probably think that there was one.

The games industry already has an MPAA equivalent(probably to the detriment of creativity), but retailers are obviously NOT doing their part. Because there is a perception that they are not. Fix the perception and you fix the problem.

And that's not necessarily a good thing, judging by what's happened every time that's been done in the past.

Why not books?

[Jtheletter]

There is easily a hundred times more depravity, violence, and subversive thinking in books on a public library shelf than in any set of video games. Thank god we've already formed committees to review and rate these harmful works and prohibit minors from accessing th.... wait, what's that you say, any child can check out these seditious and violent works with nothing more than a library card? The works of the Marquis de Sade? Historical accounts of wars? Works of terror by Stephen King? What have we come to as a country if minors are allowed to view these materials unchecked? I demand that public libraries and librarians be fined and jailed for allowing such terrible influences to be given to our children!!

Sarcasm aside, I demand that any legislator writing such a vigeogame law justify how that media can be treated differently than any other work. And interaction is not a valid defense, choose your own adventure books would meet that standard.

I do agree some games are not suitable for minors, but just as the law doesn't jail or fine movie theaters if minors get into R-rated shows, there should be now such law punishing video game stores and clerks for essentially the same offense.

Can we stop paying attention to this freak?

[The Evil Couch]

Seriously. The only reason why this guy has political figures interested in him is because he's stirring people up.

If we ignore him, he's no longer an interesting controversial figure and he loses pretty much all his power.

Please, no more damn articles on this asshole.

Re:Can we stop paying attention to this freak?

[Random Guru 42]

We may know better than to pay him any heed, but those miserable, stupid peons who make up most of the world's population are another story. And that's why he's a danger.

Re:Can we stop paying attention to this freak?

[An Onerous Coward]

It doesn't matter if we ignore him. There is a large segment of the population which loves the idea that we're on the train to the land of Moral Decline, and the only thing that can save our nation is to ban "smut", reintroduce corporal punishment, and make the damned kids start calling people "sir" and "ma'am" again. These people vote, write letters to their representatives, and basically wield the sort of political influence that can only be generated by large crowds of idiots.

If we ignore the idiots, they will not go away. They won't stop until they've invaded every home, blocked most of your cable channels, put a filter on your Internet, and passed laws allowing them to tell you to spit out our gum and stand up straight.

Re:Thanks...I'll be leaving the US now...it's over

[sgant]

It isn't about running away from anything. I've been fighting an uphill battle all those years. Everyone says "if you don't like things, then get out and vote". Well, I get out and vote. I try to get out and work in the community. I go to city council meetings. I am part of the school board. I write my congressman and Senator constantly almost to the point where I'm a nuisance. All to no avail.

When I have to sit in on meetings about teaching intelligent design in our school system, I try to object that it's not even science at all I get people looking at me like I'm nuts. I even had a guy tell me to move to France as he said they're Godless over there too...to which he had a bit of applause from the group! It's a long story on that one, but you get my point I hope.

So you say it's running away when things happen I don't like. Well, I suppose you would say that anyone that in the past has left an oppressive country and government were "running away when things happen" also? You seem to be one of these people that look down on people that bad-mouth their country...pathetic you call them. You even want to pass a law that if anyone says they want to leave the country would be deported in a month. And how dare I "cry" about it here. Sorry to muck up your perfect world order by my crying. I know you're just spouting off, but I'm not so sure that one day they would indeed pass this law...as our free speech that some still hold dear is eroding away year by year along with other freedoms...like the new bill about how the police would be able to take DNA samples from anyone detained. That's detained, not even arrested. Yes, this means that a minor traffic stop you "could" be required to give a DNA sample. More about this here.

I'm tired. I just now want to live my life in peace and quiet now. This Jack Thompson thing is just another straw on a very over burdened camel.