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Jack Thompson Calls The Feds On PA
Gamespot is reporting that Jack has taken his beef to the Feds regarding the dangerous pixelantes over at Penny Arcade. From the article: "In a letter addressed to John McKay, US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, and sent to media outlets, Thompson this morning said the site was using a variety of means 'to encourage and solicit criminal harassment' of him. Thomspon wrote to McKay, 'Please help me if you can,' but did not include specific actions he wished to have taken against the site. McKay's office prosecutes cases investigated by several law enforcement agencies in Western Washington, including the FBI." PvP is also running a parody indicating that Jack has appealed to the Justice League for assistance with Gabe and Tycho.
That doesn't mean that the harassment is "OK" it just means that 1) it isn't Gabe & Tycho's creation and 2) he has lowered protections against speech anyway given that he's made himself a public figure.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Let's not forget that Thompson does this for profit, a hell of a lot more than the Penny Arcade guys get. Thompson has orchistrated multiple lawsuits and class-action suits against the industry over the years, and has profitedly handsomly from it. Thompson inhabits a space that attempts to restrict expression for personal profit. That's a lot more tenuous than the position of Penny Arcade where they express themselves and get paid for it.
Thompson is very relevant to Penny Arcade. They've sold "I hate Jack Thompson" t-shirts for years. He claims that Electronic Arts sells pornography via Sims2 to children and that videogames caused Columbine. Penny Arcade is a webcomic about videogame culture. Thompson is a part of that culture. There is a clear connection there, and a clear reason for Penny Arcade to e-mail this very public figure.
He then called them. On the phone. In meatspace. Of his own volition. Which of course they post about, as Penny Arcade is a blog that posts about videogame relevant experiences these two people have. That's what they do. And having tons of readers, some respond by making baseless threats. That's the nature of the modern instantaneous communication and not at all PA's fault. If you haven't had at least one nut job claim you're going to be staring down the end of a 357, you're not trying hard enough.
And Thompson did a lot to fan the flames. Like pretending to contact the police, when in fact he was faxing everyone but them. And now the feds. Oh, and the whole open challenge to the video game industry PR stunt followed by "my promise to donate to charity was a farce." And he happened to be in the news anyway, what with the National Institute on Media and the Family distancing itself from him.
Not to put it too bluntly, but Penny Arcade has raised over 1/2 million dollars for toys for children's hospitals. Jack Thompson just copped out on making a promised 10,000 dollar donation to charity. That's basically what they said to him, and it's true.
Either way, he's a lawyer. He's supposed to be held to a higher moral standard. He's not supposed to make baseless threats, scream obscenities at media people, or mislead about legal actions he's pursuing.
On the other hand, the Penny Arcade blog, the modern equivalent of a morning radio show, has been posting inflammatory things like:
Jack is not special. He is not a unique snow flake as they say. He is just the latest vocal opponent of whatever is "corrupting" our youth at the moment. When my dad was growing up it was rock and roll devil music. Then it was comic books then movies and rap music. Today its videogames. If we were to succeed in getting Jack blacklisted from the major news outlets someone else would simply take his place. Imagine him as an actor playing a part in a play. The point is that Jack Thompson is not important. If he were to be fired a new actor would simply take up the role. The same lines would still be delivered in the same way and the same audience would pay to see it. We are actually fortunate that the current actor is so impotent in his role. Imagine what might happen if some charming, efficacious attorney took his place. The more I consider it the more I think we may be lucky to have Jack playing the part of the alarmist. The alternative might be someone who is actually capable.
That's major inducement to harass right there.
The ______ Agenda
Maybe they aren't juvenile enough to be making jokes about rape. Rape isn't funny.
(Unless you're raping a clown).
Jack might be a right wing nut job but he does have a point about Penny Arcade. He was doing an independent campaign that had nothing to do with them, then they took it on themselves to e-mail him.
Yeah, I suppose a guy trying to shove his morality down the collective throats of gamers has absolutely nothing to do with gamers.
Thanks, you fail at life.
Ignoring him is definitely not the best thing to do here. As the PA guys mentioned recently, we can't afford to ignore Thompson because *other* people will still listen to him.
Just a few days ago Thompson was on CNN. He has name recognition and so he can easily get into the media's spotlight. Once there he can spout off about whatever he feels like. If nobody pushes back, he wins by default.
Elrond, Duke of URL
"This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"-Sam&Max
No, you have one man claiming that he's getting all these death threats. When he ponies up the emails, with headers, from all these people putting out death threats on him, then he has a case. Right now, he's twisting the truth to get other people to do what he wants. But of course, that's what lawyers do.
I mean, go check out actual email conversation with the guy.. VG Cats & Jack!.. even when he starts the conversation, he starts seeing death threats and attacks in the responses. He's got the shittiest pair of rose-colored-glasses I've ever seen. Anything said to him is either total support, or a death threat.
"If Common Sense was so common, it wouldn't be such a valued trait."
Self-righteous web comics and their self-righteous video game playing readers are the best. I can't get enough of all the bullshit I see here, that wouldn't convince anybody who isn't also a nerdy self-righteous video-game player.