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
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?
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.
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.
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?
Except the Louisiana state legislature is 64% Democrats in the state House and 61% Democrats in the state Senate and a Democratic governer. Whoops. Oh well. The important thing is to always blame Republicans for restricting people's personal and economic freedom, no matter whose fault it really is. Holding the guilty accountable isn't the point. The point is blasting people we find politically distasteful.
Crusade onward, my good man! Get those Republicans!
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib