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Jack Thompson Sues Florida Bar

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-your-popcorn dept.

Gamasutra reports that Jack Thompson has sued the Florida Bar Association, for "hector[ing] plaintiff Thompson for 19 months with SLAPP Bar complaints filed by opposing counsel (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participants). Continually, during that time, Thompson and his counsel in these Bar matters have repeatedly asked The Florida Bar to sit down with him and his counsel to try to resolve, once and for all, this dispute, which goes back more than 18 years when other baseless SLAPP Bar complaints were filed, resulting in the payment of money damages to plaintiff Thompson."

9 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. I find it... by ddx+Christ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it difficult to read anything involving Jack Thompson seriously at this point. The media coverage he has gained just makes him look like the lead act in a ridiculous circus. While it may have even been funny in a stomach-turning way at one point or another, it's essentially just pathetic to see news involving him.

    I can only hope that he learns his lesson sooner or later, or at least it'll get to the point where nobody cares about Jack Thompson. At this stage in the game to say otherwise owuld be an exercise in futility.

    --
    Fun Zoid RPG
  2. If you don't look... by ucaledek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    maybe he'll fade away. Probably not, but it's better than hearing his self-aggrandizing crusade against all things not Jack Thompson. The problem is that some news media treat him a serious player in the world, when their only proof seems to be previous news media's treatment of him as a serious player.

    1. Re:If you don't look... by Ayaress · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, that worked really well averting WWII and the oil crisis in the 1970's. Ignore them and they'll stop bothering us. It's a historically common way of dealing with everything from dissidents to economics, and it almost universally bites you in the ass in the end.

      So, ignore him. He's still on CNN, Fox news, whoever will listen to him on a weekly basis. The family protection groups are still throwing his name and words around - even the ones that publically renounced him a while back have made friendly again. What you have now is the same guy running unchallenged. This is the situation he had when he ruined many businesses in the porn industry. Nobody stood up to him, and the industry itself just ignored him and hoped their studio wasn't next. So a lot of people lost their businesses - some of whom hadn't actually been making pornography, but he figured it was close enough.

      Then he went after music. Ruined a few artists, got a few CD's taken off the market - to this day he loves to tell anybody who'll listen that he's the reason Ice-T's career ended so suddenly. By and large, no opposition. The artists ignored him, the labels didn't really care, and the listeners didn't even know what was going on in most cases.

      A decade running unchecked. He finally picked on an industry with a lot of fans who spend more time on their computers than anywhere else, and fighting back is easy online, so a lot of people are fighting back now.

      And what happened? He's lost cases, he's been thrown out of court, he's been made a monkey of repeatedly, and right now he's in danger of losing his ability to make legal war on the media for good.

      Just ignore him. He'll be back.

  3. Expert by Unlikely_Hero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These days it seems the only difference between a layman and an expert is the title...

    --
    Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
  4. Diddums by Armchair+Dissident · · Score: 3, Insightful

    claiming one million dollars in damages, based on what he claims are vindictive complaints filed against him by other lawyers

    And encouraging families to sue game makers is not vindictive?! The man has been abusing the legal system filing frivolous complaints against game makers for years.

    --

    The ways of gods are mysteriously indistinguishable from chance.
  5. Cum granum salis by Julian+Morrison · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You know, there ought to be some status in law, where a person's opinion is no longer regarded as more meaningful than purely entropic noise. Lets call it cum granum salis. A person having this status could neither be sole plaintiff nor sole witness in a legal case. If they wanted to bring suit, they'd have to have a guarantor willing to swear to their truthfulness - who would risk having their own opinions taken cum granum salis if the case were subsequently thrown out for lack of merit.

    The first recipients should probably be Jack Thompson, and SCO.

  6. Re:"I've got a First Amendment right to annoy peop by gorbachev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's even more hypocritical is that any time anyone he disagrees with emails him, he's quoting the federal law that makes it illegal to anonymously send annoying emails. He quotes this law even if the emails are sent using the sender's real name. But then again knowing the law hasn't really been his strong point, ever.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
  7. Don't underestimate the bar by thornz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wouldn't underestimate the veracity of the bar when it comes to ethics violations. Suing the bar isn't going to get them to back off, it's only going to make them more frustrated and willing to pursue you.

    1. Re:Don't underestimate the bar by ClamIAm · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Suing the bar isn't going to get them to back off, it's only going to make them more frustrated and willing to pursue you.

      This is exactly what he wants. Thompson has shown repeatedly that he cares little for the actual legal merit of anything he is involved in, and is more interested in self-important attention-whoring. Unfortunately for the legal system and the populace in general, he is a lawyer, and this allows him more and better opportunities to abuse the legal and media systems for personal gain. Even more unfortunate is the fact that he's chosen a complete non-issue (violent video games) as the stepping stone toward fame and fortune.

      However, his arguments are so completely absurd that it's hard to believe the man is truly mentally stable. In the end, truth will of course win out over his empty rhetoric. I'm just glad he's not very charismatic or cogent, as that would make him an extremely dangerous lobbyist/politician.