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Kotaku Games Blog Sued By Jack Thompson
Reacting to Kotaku's coverage of comments Thompson made last week about the VA Tech incident, Thompson has sued Kotaku and their parent company Gawker media. He also tried to sic the FBI on them (getting as much success there as he did with the Penny Arcade gents). From GamePolitics' coverage: "Thompson's ire was apparently raised by Kotaku reader comments which the attorney maintains are threatening. He also alleges in the complaint that Kotaku and Gawker declined to remove the menacing posts. The messages in question stem from Kotaku's coverage of Thompson's claims that video games prompted last week's Virginia Tech massacre. The Gawker suit is actually an amendment to an action Thompson filed on March 13th against the Florida bar. On April 11th he amended it to include the members of the Florida Supreme Court. And now Gawker joins the list of defendants."
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Drink deeply or not at all."
I bet this is the first time someone has ever used the phrase, "the chances are slim to none, and Slim just left town." in a Legal filing before.
Isn't enough that I ruined a pony, making a gift for you?
"Waah! Your readers were mean to me!"
If only all the nutjobs were as easily dismissable as Jack.
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
Remember kids, when Grandpa goes senile, it's not a good idea to let him drive...or practice law.
"Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
"Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought, regardless of its merits, solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action. It is considered an abuse of the judicial process and almost always brings down sanctions on the offender." -- wikipedia
Belief is the currency of delusion.
From the desk of the millions of normal people who play games:
Much like you, we were deeply disturbed by the actions of the shooter at Virginia Tech and feel terribly for the families of the lost. However we deeply resent the fact that you have totally bypassed the issue at hand and chosen instead to scapegoat the electronic entertainment industry. Perhaps instead of blaming videogames (which are clearly not your area of expertise) we should instead delve a little deeper in order to find what causes these depraved/deprived individuals to take such drastic measures. Your "proof" of a link to video game violence is tenuous at best - equivalent to such joke statistics as bread creating murderers. Statistical correlation is not proof of cause and effect but beyond that, you have failed to even show a statistical correlation, instead bringing up the specific examples where the statistics say what you want to prove.
Like naysayers for the past several centuries, you see the advent of a new form of entertainment as the downfall of society. Novels, the waltz, radio and television have all been targetted in the past and so far civilization has emerged unscathed (but not unchanged).
Perhaps this is the issue; you (and millions of right-wing conservatives) are afraid of what the future may bring. Who knows what changes the liberalization of the West may bring?
In short, we feel that you are doing nobody any good - you are attempting (and luckily failing) to take the attention away from the actual issues (which in the case of the VT shooting are as of yet indetermined).
Signed,
Gamers of the world.
P.S. While we harbour you no malice, I wouldn't suggest you attempt any retribution - we have all been trained on "murder simulators" . . .
Godless heathen.
I'm so excited I just made water in my pantaloons!
When a moron like Jack Thompson is allowed to toss frivolous lawsuits at every man woman and child that says or does something he doesn't like. I'd think all this horse-shit he keeps pulling would bite him in the ass, but it never does.
I am going to kill Jack Thompson with a chainsaw.
that Jack Thompson is in fact suing all these companies. It means he's falling and knows it. He's going to try to take whoever he can with him. within a year no one will know he existed.
THe best thing to ever happen in the favor of gamers was Jack's soap box jump within hours of Vtech. Blaming games, and saying Cho never would NEVER have "learned to enjoy killing withoutplaying violent video games". Only to later find out, that Cho, well never really played games. Maybe mine sweaper to pass some boring class time.
He made the biggest fool of himself and lost all credibility he had. Jack's an empty shell and a nobody now. While someone else will eventually take his place in the crusade, gamers everywhere can comfortably play games without scrutiny.
It's not that hard to understand.
Imagine that you have built a business around selling tiger-repelling rocks. Not crazy huge, but enough that you live quite comfortably and can even get on TV being interviewed about your success as a self-made entrepeneur.
Would you ever admit that the idea of a tiger-repelling rock is nonsense? Would you accept any proof that was offered, no matter how robust and bulletproof, that your rocks did nothing? Of course not. You might know that your rock is useless, but you aren't going to say so, because as long as your insistence that your rock does its job perfectly convinces some people, then they will buy your rocks and you continue to make money. When nobody believes you any more, well, then you just come out with the wolverine-repelling friendship bracelet and you're back in business.
"Video games (as opposed to complex social problems) cause violence" is all JT has. He isn't going to give that up so long as a single person is willing to point a microphone at him while he rants. When that day finally comes, then he'll find another boogey man to blame all of society's ills on, and suddenly people will start listening again. Just like he moved on from rap music to video games.
I don't think for a second that JT really thinks games drive people crazy. I think he thinks it's his only meal ticket. He's a lawyer, and being a lawyer is all about arguing for something vehemently that you don't necessarily agree with at all. While JT may be crazy, and most of his statements do give that impression, his fundamental motivation is probably greed rather than a distorted view of reality.
The enemies of Democracy are
Someone should create a 'Sued by Jack Thompson' logo for gaming sites.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Declaring yourself an expert is easy, I love it!
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
> he truly believes that video games are the cause of violence and the before video games were made the world was a perfect paradise with no violence or war.
No, because before video games, rap music was to blame for society's ills. And before that, pornography. Jack Thompson tilted at both of these windmills before he found his bete noir in video games.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
My favorite:
"The happy result was that Thompson is now the only officially Bar-certified sane lawyer in Florida."
Wow. I can't believe this guy puts things like this into legal filings.