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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."
If there is ANYTHING good and right in the world, please prevent this from happening. This guy is a freaking nut -- please do not let him do ANYTHING to censor video games.
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
It sounds like it has the potential to be ambiguous enough to include games that get rated "Teen." After all "violent" games can teens and it gets a little fuzzy. I doubt repurcusions would get all the way to game publishers though (except from companies not wanting to handle the liability of Mature games), after all Hollywood doesn't get dinged when someone underage makes it into a theater. Or when someone underage buys alcohol. But the tides do seem to be against game publishers these days, and some places are still trying to sue firearms manufacturers for stuff that third-parties do with their guns. Time'll tell, but I hope it falls flat.
We are talking about the state that had Too Live Crew arrested though.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
For some reason, I thought we might manage to make it out of this whole can of worms without ridiculous legislation, but I guess not. So far Jeb has done an OK job at balancing the right wing conservative fundamental religious nutcases in the Panhandle with the left wing liberal nutcases in the Wang, but this smacks of falling prey to letters from the west.
I'm still not sure I understand why government entities feel like they need to step into a system that was sufficient for informing parents about the nature and content of media. The MPAA rates movies, the theaters sort-of enforce the rating requirements, but there are no real laws underlining any of it. The ESRB rates games, the vendors sort-of enforce the rating system, but apparently society as we know it is going to come crashing down if we don't impose some fines or jail sentences.
How is legislation like this and the Michigan law going to affect online sales of games?
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
(The Beatles)
you had respect for florida?
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?
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
According to this, Thompson is somewhat full of shit.
"A representative of Jeb Bush's press office characterized as "untrue" yesterday's Jack Thompson press release in which the Miami attorney and self-described "anti-game crusader" claimed that he was crafting video game legislation on behalf of the Florida governor."
More through the link.
One word: Canada. Really, look into it. All of the perks of the U.S. without the nut jobs...
You will know that the article is not completely up to date. Currently, Bush officials have denied that they asked Jack Thompson to write up video game legislation for them. Actually, blame should be put on GameStop for not researching this subject further, which is sad being that it is a highly visted videogame information site for many gamers.
See you in Canada. All the benefits of living in a modern economy a hair's breath from the world's sole superpower; none of the drawbacks of living in a third world society. You even get to speak English!
Just be sure to pack heavy, it's cold up here.
The unofficial
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.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
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.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
...one of those "I Hate Jack Thompson" T-shirts they're selling at ThinkGeek!
Honestly, I'm proud to be one of the "Right-Wing-Bible-Thumping-Republican-Christian" wackos that the average Slashdotter loves to hate. But Jack has really been taking things too far the past few months.
In response to the complaints that I've been hearing about this subject like "Why not books?" "What about movies?" "Isn't this censorship?" and so on and so forth, I have this to say:
- No, this isn't censorship because content is not being taken out. If the studios have to remove content to reach their audience, they'll find a way around regulations (they always do). Children aren't allowed to buy pornography and yet I hear no massive outcry about that. This is simply trying to keep excessively vulgar and violent games away from very young children.
- Yes, youth violence is on a constant decline as it has been for the past several years, making all these "games raising you children to kill" arguments mostly idiodic.
- Video games can be conceived of as more influential to children than books (I doubt it) and especially movies (easily so) as numerous studies suggest (keyword: suggest) that games are more powerful due to the level of interaction and feedback they require from the user.
- Books are also not being targetted because anybody who looks at social trends can tell that literacy, or at least recreational reading in the US is on the decline. The numbers aren't large enough to get a response.
But finally, games are being the scapegoat because the majority of the voting population in America doesn't understand games. By the time all those kids who were 6 or so when Nintendo first hit the US (people like me) become the major voting demographic, politicians will need to find a new target.
Perfecting Discordia
www.stevenvansickle.com
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.
The World's Worst Webcomic!
All of the perks of the U.S. without the nut jobs.
Canada is a nice country, but it has its own share of problems.
I lived there for three years, and I noticed:
- A LOT of petty micromanagement in the government. No country should spend tax dollars on governmental inspectors to ensure that restaurants are limited to a certain number of televisions, and that each of them must be below a maximum size. Or to arbitrarily decide that waitresses can wear a rollerskate on one foot, but not both. Two pieces of photo ID to buy liquor at the store, but only one from a bar? If you have two pieces of ID but your friend only has one, anything they were carrying can't be bought and you can only buy what you have in your hands?
- Stupidly high taxes, probably due mostly to the last point.
- A very conservative attitude re: appearances. I had long hair at the time, and I felt like I was back in the 50s because so many people thought I was a girl.
- A much bigger problem with non-deadly crime, e.g. theft and home invasions. Related to this, the much more restrictive firearm laws, although obviously some people prefer it that way.
- (related to the first point, but split out because this is a long rant) The incredibly annoying Canadian content laws for broadcasters. I had a show at my university's radio station, and there just aren't that many good Canadian industrial bands. Content should be about quality, not country of origin. A lot of the popular music in Canada is even worse than in the US (which is saying a lot) because the law requires radio stations and MuchMusic to play bands that are Canadian knockoffs of American pop bands (who are themselves third- or fourth-generation knockoffs of interesting music). I am looking at you, shitty band I can't remember the name of who tried to pull a Hendrix and turn the Canadian national anthem into a wailing guitar solo.
On the other hand:
- Socialized healthcare is good in many ways, although I think they should take the funding for the petty bureaucrats and use it to make sure people don't have to wait months for surgery.
- University is actually affordable for citizens.
I definitely have fond memories of it, but enough things got under my skin that I wouldn't live there again. That's kind of my dilemma - I feel similarly to the GP, but I don't know of any countries that would as a whole make me happier than the US.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
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.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith