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Jack Thompson Calls Cops on Penny-Arcade
Anon1001 sent us the latest developments in the ongoing saga between Miami Attorney Jack Thompson and Penny-Arcade. So far the story goes that Jack has filed a wrongful death suit against Rock Star, claiming that GTA is a cop killing training simulator responsible for the murder of a pair of cops. He also
offered $10k to charity if anyone who would develop some ridiculous murder spree game. When someone did it, and he changed his mind and Penny-Arcade donated the cash instead. All of this is being documented on the Penny Arcade website, in phone calls, rants and comics, as well as an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' T-Shirt. (Note, Slashdot's parent company owns ThinkGeek).
He has now
called the cops claiming harassment. Update: 10/18 17:40 GMT by Z : It seems like this confrontation has been brewing all summer. The most recent altercation is just another link in the chain made by Thompson's reaction to Hot Coffee and his crusade against the Sims 2. Further, PA has put up the scan of the letter to the cops, and a photo of the check.
I sure hope they cite his ass for making a false report. Publications are not harrassment. Jack Thompson himself started this mess. Does he consider himself guilty of "harassing" the makers of GTA? ...the video game industry? ...game loving Slashdotters everywhere?
I mean sure, this guy is a blowhard and a liar, but I think the T-shirt goes a little too far. However, it doesn't constitute harrasment. A bunch of geeks calling his house or hacking into his email or whatever else does, though. I don't know if that sort of this is happening yet, but you can bet it will if this continues.
What does this man think he's going to accomplish? His vitriolic actions are very unlikely to change anyone's mind about the issue of video game violence. I teach argumentative writing and rhetoric to college students; one of the first things we teach is to know one's audience. Very few people of the ultra-conservative persuasion, however, need to be persuaded - they already are fanatically against video games that contain violence, sex, etc.
And his tactics - wilfully distorting the truth, branding video game makers as murderers, setting up straw men to attack in his ravings about violent entertainment - well, I doubt anyone who's played the games he's targeting is going to burn their copy of GTA because of the things Thompson is saying.
Bravo, Penny Arcade, for helping him do what he'd end up doing anyway: alienating anyone who might have listened to a more logical or reasonable argument against game violence, and generating more media attention for Rockstar Games et al. so they will, in turn, sell more games and continue creating popular content. For a lawyer, Thompson seems to have missed that one little maxim: "any press is good press."
I am not a lawyer, but reading the course of communications between Jack Thompson and Penny Arcade, it seems to me that while Penny Arcade is certainly not guilty of criminal harassment, Jack Thompson has violated the Florida Bar's standard of ethics for attorneys. He is using his status as an attorney, as an officer of the court, to threaten/bully private citizens with obviously frivolous suits. (You cannot sue someone for merely e-mailing you, unless it was obscene, a death threat, causing severe emotional distress, etc.!) While not rising to the point of a suspendable offense, I believe a public reprimand from the Bar is appropriate and needed.
This really reminds of of McCarthy. People eventually saw him for what he was, a fucking lunatic.
Evidently, Jack believes it to be acceptable to harass video game developers, but sees this as a one-way street.
This is what freedom of speech is all about, Jack. Say what you will. You are free to listen to what others have to say in return. Harassment law ought not prevent you from being hung by your own words.
On the one hand, I almost feel compelled to call the Seattle PD (local for me) and plead with them not to take any action based on Mr. Thompson's ludicrous and exaggerated claims; on the other hand, I can't imagine anyone taking that man seriously after all the negative press he has been receiving. It's almost as though the more he gets ragged on, the more intense he gets about beating the video games industry into the ground.
:P), but this situation with Jack Thompson reminds me vividly of the classic bully/attention-whore syndrome in elementary school. The more flak people give this guy, especially negative, he's just going to keep coming back for more. You know what would really hurt him? Neglect and disregard. If somehow everyone was able to see what a boisterous gasbag this man is and just learn to ignore everything he barks, he will lose his bite. So for Mike and Jerry, while reading about their antics of antagonizing Mr. Thompson are often hilarious and eye-opening, they may be just making the matter worse for most involved.
I do love Penny Arcade as much as the next guy (perhaps moreso if the next guy doesn't like them
In any event, this too shall pass; I just hope it passes before our friends at Penny Arcade get slapped with a real-yet-bogus lawsuit by this litigation-happy doofus.
Fin.
"The gods do not protect fools; fools are protected by more capable fools." -Larry Niven's "Ringworld"
How, pray, does an attorney get disbarred for being a loonie? Half the western governments would lose representatives, MPs, etc. on that claim. More to the point:
He has now called the cops claiming harassment.
He will now harass PA and the thing is, he knows full well how to do it and could make PA suffer in the short run.
I have no doubts he has nary a leg to stand on, bringing this all upon himself by raising himself to a Public Figure, which surrenders certain protections.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
GREAT in the sense of successful, of course, not in the sense of "good for the people."
You all are taking note of what he's trying to do, right? He's trying to transform the gamer community's reaction to his lunacy into attacks on his cause, which is, at least in his mind, protecting innocent kids and brave police officers.
It's just a matter of time before it becomes a real simple equation:
Disagreeing with Jack Thompson = Helping to kill cops
At that point, it becomes really easy to pass laws banning the types of videogames that Jack disagrees with. (Then movies, then web sites, maybe even books...)
Yep, he may be just a lawyer right now, but he clearly has higher intentions in mind, and he's using skills that have been taught very well over the past few years to get elected. It doesn't take too much gray matter to realize that soccer moms outnumber gaming advocates by a pretty wide margin, so who would you rather have included in your base?
The crying shame of it is that given America's record of picking leaders lately, he'll probably succeed, unless at least a few people not just read Slashdot, but actually act on what they read here.
Send a message, folks, and get out and vote. And not just for the big elections every four years. Vote in your Congressional elections. Vote in your state elections. Vote for your local councilmembers. Spread the word and get your friend to vote. Don't be afraid to use that fancy gaming machine to write a fickin' letter now and then. What do you say, can we please stop the ensuing madness to come before it gets started?
Jack wants to protect children and cops. Hey, I do too, I just happen to think he's going about it all wrong. The question in my mind now is: Who will protect the rest of us from Jack?
....then he (or one of his minions) is aware (or will be aware) of this thread here on Slashdot. Seeing what a over-reacting media whore he seems to be, I suspect that this discussion will be referenced on whatever media outlet he ends up on (likely Fox News, if you want to call what they do journalism) to prove that we "nerds" are a bunch of psychos who are addicted to violent video games and our threats to "run down Jack Thompson with an 18-wheeler" as the AC who posted that comment said will be used as proof of that.
Why not tone down the rhetoric and give him the type of attention he deserves, which is NONE whatsoever?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I always like to ask right-wingers ranting about games and sex causing social decline, "Yeah! I mean, do you know what's happened to rates of violent youth crime and teen pregancny in the last ten years?" They always answer that they're at unprecedented levels, and then are thrown off when I tell them that they've actually been falling quite steadily. Teen pregancy is even at its lowest rate since we began taking statistics in the '40s, down from the all-time high in 1991.
What would be really amusing to me is if they discovered, in 20 years, that untold psychological damage to children was done by The Sims. People spending all day running households like gods, torturing and killing families and developing these horribly twisted personalities. I mean, take a horribly violent, depraved movie -- for example, Saw, and ask what game the creators would probably enjoy playing?
In all seriousness, I think people are both more fragile and more resiliant than they're usually credited with. We handled torturing animals with sticks in the backyard 50 years ago, and we'll handle GTA. And I was going to say something about child-rearing, but then I realized that the last thing anyone wants is more advice on raising kids from a childless twentysomething, so I'll leave it at "the world is probably not coming to an end".
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
Let me be the first to say that Jack Thompson is verifiably batshit loco insane. He has twisted a simple premise (he believes that violent media has a role in violent behavior in some kids and adults, and since there's no sure way to know how these impressionable kids will react, we shouldn't sell it to them) into a media-whoring shouting match the likes of a mentally unstable street preacher. Let me also say that Gabe and Tycho enlighten me and entertain me on nearly a daily basis and I love them to death.
That said, I still think that both sides have handled the situation fairly poorly, as I see it. First off, if Jack really wants to change things, he should have offered his $10,000 toward nonprofit research that proves the positive mental effects of nonviolent games. If you tell the 16-year-olds of the world that being good at Tetris will get them laid, Rockstar would be bankrupt in a week.
On the other hand, I feel the guys at PA have sunk to the same shameful ad hominem depths as their opponent with their "I hate Jack Thompson" shirt. It's their right to sell it, of course, but it shows no class and seeks to profit from causing misery to a specific individual. I happen to think they also should have donated their $10,000 to starving families and dying children, and not the Entertainment Software Association. Sure, it's funny that "Jack Thompson" is sending the ESA a check, but all they're really doing is furthering their own agenda and probably funding lawyers -- I had hoped that out of this debacle people in need would see some benefit, but I guess that's too much to assume.
I support the separation of oil and state.
1. Paranoid delusions, or delusions of persecution, for example believing that people are "out to get" you, or the thought that people are doing things when there is no external evidence that such things are taking place. 2. Delusions of reference - when things in the environment seem to be directly related to you even though they are not. For example it may seem as if people are talking about you or special personal messages are being communicated to you through the TV, radio, or other media. 3. Somatic Delusions are false beliefs about your body - for example that a terrible physical illness exists or that something foreign is inside or passing through your body. 4. Delusions of grandeur - for example when you believe that you are very special or have special powers or abilities. An example of a grandiouse delusion is thinking you are a famous rock star.
Well he certianly seems to think people are out to get him, he seems to have delusions of reference as well, and he sure as hell has delusions of grandeur as he seems to think he's a great crusader against evil. He meets various other criteria as well:
# disorganized thinking # difficulty understanding # difficulty expressing thoughts # difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior
Now of course I am not a psychologist (though that is what my degree is in) and even if I were, you cannot diagnose a condition like schizophrenia from things over the Internet, but there's enough irrational behaviour that it certianly gives me cause to wonder. The man may honestly be clinicly crazy, and if that's the case, his rationale for his actions isn't likely to make sense to anyone.
This guy (Thompson) is railing against freedom of expression, and the mainstream press is ignoring him in droves.
.
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Are you kidding me? The mainstream press loves this guy. The hot coffee mod "scandal" is but his latest whipping boy. This guy has scored a lot of prime time interviews and news stories on major outlets since the early '90s with, among other things, demands that 2 Live Crew's "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" and Ice T's "Cop Killer" be banned (those were big news items at the time), been a major factor behind several indecency fines Howard Stern received from the FCC, and been a part of damn near every news story on the dangers of violent video games.
This is the guy who insisted that Columbine was caused by DOOM being a "murder simulator". He has sued, among others Time Warner Inc., Polygram Film Entertainment Distribution Inc., Palm Pictures, Island Pictures and New Line Cinema, Atari Corp., Nintendo of America, Sega of America Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment under Federal Product Liability laws after a different school shooting
His allegations led Dateline NBC to report that Lee Boyd Malvo, the beltway sniper, had "trained extensively using Halo".
He has been interviewed numerous times on CBS, including one famous instance in which he compared Doug Lowesnstein of the ESA to Joseph Goebbels.
He has appeared on 60 minutes to discuss how Grand Theft Auto (he alleges) trained a young man to murder two police officers.
No, the problem is most definitely not that the media is ignoring him. Quite the opposite, really.
This is how lawyers "solve problems". They sue people. Another way to solve the problem of kids and uberviolent video games would be to make an online web page with a list for parents so that they can click on a game and see how violent it is, and decide whether they want to buy it for their kids. Then you publicize that web site so that parents know its out there. That's how a reasonable and intelligent person would solve the problem. But when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and when all you have is a law degree, everything looks like an actionable lawsuit. So he types up a brief in his underwear while he's watching an episode of "Boston Legal", and he thinks he's making a difference.
Tristan Yates
I don't think the government (at least on the federal level) uses tax brackets. Instead, each section of your income (the first $10,000, the next $10,000, from $20,000 to $40,000, etc. These are not actual values.) is taxed at a different rate. This is to prevent the exact problem you describe... you should never receive less money by earning more.
No, this is exactly what he wants. All this 'public lampooning' feeds the beast. There is no bad publicity for this guy. Like that cheesy Merlin mini-seires from 1998, the only way to destroy the evil witch is to FORGET JACK THOMPSON. Turn your backs. Ignore him. If he wasn't controversial, producers wouldn't be seeking him out an putting him on news shows. The game news media attraction to him, and the gamers attraction to mocking him gives him power
Having said that, I recognize it's impossibly difficult to stop the "I hate Jack Thompson" landslide, mostly because younger people are far more prone to reaction based on emotion than logic. But right or wrong, by keeping his voice alive in the media, a percentage of adults are going to pick out his soundbites and use it to reinforce their already negative image of some games.
No matter how many psychologist you parade on TV, or game execs, or 'kid next door' interviews that are frank and honest about violence in game and the lack of attribution towards violence in real life.... it wont make a difference. They'll hear what they want to hear, and because the target demographic of 85% of products is 18-30 years of age, us being upset about this guy gives a button to push that makes us turn to watch, or read, or care.
Jack Thompson is a griefer. He's the MyG0t of Attorneys. And the best way to make a MyG0t'er leave a server (assuming you can't kick/ban) is for everyone to ignore him.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Ann Coulter, McArthy, Jack Thompson...
I wonder what makes people go into these modes. It's like they don't feel there is any reprecussion to their actions. They are real-life trolls.
I am a science fantasy fan
> They are real-life trolls Most insightful Jack Thompson comment. Ever.
Actually, yeah -
First, it can be expected to be taken seriously - after all, the guy is a lawyer, and he is filing a complaint with the police. So either he expects that statement to be taken seriously or he's filing a falce claim.
Second, he's an attorney lodging a complaint - extortion has a very specific legal definition and meaning, it isn't a word an attorny lodging a complaint with the police would be throwing around lightly. He either is actually accusing them of extortion or he is incompetent and is using the word incorrectly.
While they probably won't bother doing it, I do think it would be nice if PA did sue this guy. Hell, I'm halfway tempted to goad him into making some stupid ass complaint against me so that I can sue him, too. That should be much more fun than playing violent video games!
Thanks, Jack, for spawning an entirely new gaming genre: Jack Thompson Baiting. Just like Bear Baiting, except it's way funnier to watch you lose your shit.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
I would call it an educational experience, but I wouldn't want to devalue the word "Education" by associating it with that.
I hate the fool.
I hate the fact that his vitriol and assinine attacks getting him national attention on 60 Minutes.
I hate the fact that he is even allowed to get away with the very behaviors that he accuses others of simply be the fact that he's a lawyer. As such he should be help to HIGHER standards than those without professional legal training.
I hate that he uses his "position of power", his lawyership, to be a bully.
I hate his total inability to grasp reality and basic concepts like cause and effect.
I hate is blameshifting.
I hate his haircut.
And I LOATHE anyone making any preconceived conclusions about me without any personal knowledge of who I am or anything else, a practice entirely too common from corporations, politicians, and grandstanders these days.
If they can afford to donate $10,000 US just to prove a point!?!
Only, like, everyone.
Yeah. If he is a rightist, he's a really poor representation of what one should be. As both rightist and a video game player, I can say that -- at least for myself -- games have had no real affect on my life. It's entertainment, like going to watch a movie; unless there's something severely wrong with a person, entertainment isn't going to revolutionize the one acts in the real world. Also, if the right is concerned about morality and ethics as it claims to be, the authority of a child's morality and ethics should be placed in the hands of the parents, not some lawsuit-bent lawyer.
I notice some people are calling him a Christian as well, and likewise, if he is a Christian, he's done an utterly poor job representing Jesus. I mean, he called (apparently, in satire) for a game where people piss on the busted brains of dead game shop employees? Oh yeah, that's real Christ-like there Jack. Nevermind the fact that Jesus said to refrain from taking people to court. Ugh.
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
"This guy has really made himself a credible source for irrationality"
The problem is that he *IS* rational, and makes a rational argument. Just many people are so hell-bent on attacking the guy that they forget this fact. He bases clear sound and logical arguments.
The problem is that his whole argument is built upon certain premisses that just don't coincide with any reality that I'm aware of. He claims that people "train on GTA to kill cops"? What part about GTA lets me pick up a gun and use it to kill a cop? It may train my behavior, but it doesn't train those skills that I need to shoot a weapon with the accuracy that people like, the Columbine shooters exhibited.
When I loaded up this radio program I was ready to hear some crackpot wizzing away again like all the other crackpots out there. But this guy isn't like that. He's intelligent, and sane. He's just using some fantasy pixie-dust premisses that support his preconceived opinion that artistic violence envokes violence in the audience.
I wonder what he'd have to say about the real Grimm Fairytales... "Of course we started the Crusades, just look at what they were teaching their kids! After a decade of training on stories of knights kill things and wolves eating small children, they had the whole skillset needed to launch a massive compaign to regain the Holy Land!"
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
Many of the people who argue the points of 'government mandated' fall into the left side of the spectrum, bigger government who should dictate morality.
No, not really.
Legislating "morality" is primarily an issue of the right.
Big government is favored by both the right and the left.
Liberals believe in individual liberty, but the right (and to a point the left) in America have worked extremely hard to demonize and redefine this word since nobody in our government wants to give up power.
The political spectrum works like this:
Liberals (or "those formerly known as Liberals") believe in individual liberty. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal" is the peak of the Liberal movement boiled down to a sentence.
The right is the party of the rich elite and they believe in using the power of the state to prevent equality. For a pretty damning example of this, just look at the current American Republicans.
The left is the party of the little guy (supposedly) and believe in using the power of the state to force equality. Examples of this gone bad are obviously Soviet Russia (cue the overused moronic jokes) and the like although there isn't much of anything on the left in America to point at anymore. Of course deluded idiots like Rush and the like are fond of referring to Kerry as an extreme leftist in reality he is pretty far to the right by most people's standards.
The worst you really see out of the American "left" are things like hate crimes (the definition) which are merely thought crime by another name.
The reality is that the right and the left believe in big oppressive government.
I'm not sure where you get your ideas about conservatism, but they are at least 30 years out of date.
American conservatives believe in shoving their religion and morality down everybody else's throat, as well as keeping the fags down. They typically claim to be Christian although clearly know nothing about the religion (or at least they know nothing about what Jesus said)
You might not believe that these are good things, but that is essentially the defining characteristic of an American conservative. You might want to think about choosing some other way to describe yourself if this isn't what you believe. That word has no good connotations left at this point, so when you use it to describe yourself most people are going to consider you an ignorant racist who despises freedom since that is what the word has come to mean.
Similarly, I would have been described as a Liberal some time ago but there is no word left to describe belief in personal liberty. The Libertarians like to claim that they do, but they're mostly just Randroidian whackjobs who think any sort of altruism is the world's greatest evil.
So anyhow, you're trying to fight against the tides here. Language changes.
Jack Thompson is the poster child for what "Conservative" means in America today.
wow. pretty creepy.
....SOMEHOW.....somehow, you know, somehow i imagine that what you're talking about HAPPENED to him, it would actuallly be bad. cause you know, it would be a big outspoken lunatic/critic of [videogame] VIOLENCE being harmed or killed because of his [idiotic] opining.
pretty ominous too.
jack is an idiot. but should he really be scared to have his home information public?
which, SOMEHOW, ya know, maybe it would trigger a backlash(?)
Please. They never were ignoring him. They were giving the idiot all the attention he could ever want, doing their best to spread his ridiculous flame-baiting message all across the Internet. They continue to argue with him despite the fact that he ignores every rational statement they ever make, that he threatens them with legal action over the most completely ridiculous things, that he insults them for no reason, that he even degerenates into complete lunacy (like telling that VGCats guy that he initiated the conversation they had even though he obviously didn't).
STOP TAKING THIS GUY SERIOUSLY. STOP GIVING HIM THE ATTENTION HE WANTS. STOP ENSURING HIS CELEBRITY STATUS.
HE IS A TROLL. YOU HAVE ALL BEEN TROLLED. YOU HAVE LOST. HAVE A NICE DAY.
AC sibling is right. Trolls are in control. It's a game to them. Jack Thompson is many things, but he is *not* in control. He's compelled to do what he's doing. He *honestly* believes the future of the country depends on his success in this endeavor...
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max