Slashdot Mirror
Louisiana Passes Violent Games Bill
GameDaily is reporting that the Louisiana House has passed a violent games bill, aping similar legislation from across the country. From the article: "The bill would allow a judge to determine if a video game is 'patently offensive to prevailing standards' and if it's appealing 'to the minor's morbid interest in violence.' If the title meets these "criteria" the game could be ordered to be pulled from store shelves. Furthermore, someone found guilty of selling one of these games would face fines of between $100 and $2,000, and a prison term of up to one year. According to the Associated Press, even though several members of the House questioned whether the bill would be in violation of the First Amendment, none felt they should vote against the measure."
You just made a big chunk of the population criminals, let me know how that turns out.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
Video games = Bad! Cockfighting = Good!
Bah, TFA not wanting to load for me. What I get from this, though, is that a retailer can be taken to court AFTER a sale for selling a game to a minor and then if the judge decides that the game is indecent and trying to appeal to minors, the store will be punished and the game pulled from shelves? How is the store to know this before selling the game to be able to be taken to court for it? Is the lousiana state government going to review all games themselves before allowing them to be sold in the state? I've got to figure out how to get in on this. You guys do something, after you do it I'll tell you if it was legal or not and sue you and throw you in jail if it wasn't. Sound like a good deal?
"Even though several members of the House questioned whether the bill would be in violation of the First Amendment, none felt they should vote against the measure."
"These decisions should be left to the legislature, the representatives of the people, not the courts."
Legislators: "I'm not touching that. Let the courts decide."
We all know why no one voted against this bill. They have seen the bans in other states thrown out on first ammendment grounds. They understand this will have no real effect (aside from forcing the game industry to pay some legal bills). They do this because they do not want to be the guy in November with ads running against him saying "John Smith wants kids to kill hookers like they do in the game he supports Grand Theft Auto."
I am sick of legislatures playing lip service to what the lattest fad is. I wish Americans (and I am sure it happens in the rest of the world too) would grow a brain and quit letting rhetoric dictacte their life.
how is the interest morbid? if anything, it should be called 'natural', in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word. i think that it is much better to be a "hardcore" "pro" halo gamer (with all the negative connotations that it entails) rather than a typical mellowed-out PC loser. I guess, the Man still can't give up His dreams to fully "Baden-Powell all the boys and Betty Crocker all the girls"... Anyway, long live violent videogames - the new underground.
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" - Luke 22:36
Don't you asshats have a city to rebuild? Why the fuck are you wasting your constituent's money on this?
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
It just means that if you don't have a drivers license that states you're over 18, you don't get to buy the game. If you're a minor and you have the game, it's because mommy and daddy bought the game for you. What's wrong with making parent's take more of an interest in what their children experience?
What's that? Your kid brought a gun to school and executed his classmates? You say that his violent video games made him do it*? Well then, who bought him the video game?
* - I find this notion laughable, by the way
Now if only we could outlaw thinking then the next elections should be a steal for the republicans.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
even though several members of the House questioned whether the bill would be in violation of the First Amendment, none felt they should vote against the measure
In summation:
-they know a law already prohibits this
-they decided to approve it anyway
Therefore, every member of the legislature that voted for this bill has committed a crime. I assume the courts will be as swift in getting the wheels of justice spinning as they are for the local meth dealer or pot farmer.
A state legislature passes a bill, knowing full well that it won't survive a court challenge. They wasted your tax dollars coming up with the thing. They wasted your tax dollars getting it passed. And they'll waste your tax dollars defending it in court. If I lived in Louisana I'd be pretty pissed off about that. Maybe you guys should get a voter referendum going to take all the money wasted on such laws out of the salaries of the legislators instead of out of the general funds of the state. Isn't Louisana pretty cash-strapped anyway? I seem to recall some whining about them not having enough money recently...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The bill would allow a judge to determine if a video game is 'patently offensive to prevailing standards' and if it's appealing 'to the minor's morbid interest in violence.'
I'm not sure if they could be any more vague. I mean, given the right conditions, you could argue this about just about any game. I recall many an hour in wholesome puzzle games like Lemmings and The Incredible Machine inventing horrible things to do to the creatures under my control. Does that count as morbid violence?
We need states to enact this kind of thing. The states, not the federal government. When one state does this, consumers on the borders will flee to adjoining states to buy video games. If it's a truly horrible piece of legislation, the market will bear this out and the retail outlets will raise hell. The feedback loop between a free market and a democracy will show itself one way or another. It could be that the residents of Louisiana overall want exactly this kind of thing, they should have it. This is not a clear violation of free speech, but it's a worthy law to challenge it. What we want now, is a legal challenge to this law. A case will be decided using this law by the lower courts, and we'll get an appelate court decision. At this point, we'll know what this law really means. Don't worry, gamers and liberterians. The passage of these kinds of laws is vital to ensuring that rights are preserved in a common law judisdiction.
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
Handgun purchases and posession are severely restricted and even outright banned in some states. Rifles are not.
As far as I know, a rifle is legal to purchase by anyone 18 and up in all states. Posession is not restricted, so if a 12 year old receives a rifle for his birthday, no problem. A rifle on a farm is a valid and necessary tool, and I've known 12 year olds that could handle them responsibly.
(above assumes you're not a convicted felon, mentally incompetant, etc)
A rifle on a farm is a valid and necessary tool
You know, for when that...corn...gets out of line.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
The Incredible Machine encourages people to build fiendishly convoluted machines with the sole purpose of punching a cat in the face.