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Jack Thompson Sues Microsoft
An anonymous reader writes to mention that Jack Thompson, in his latest bout of zealotry, has set his sights on Microsoft for their recent release of Halo 3. GameAlmighty has posted the letter to Bill Gates. "Here's the deal, Mr. Gates: Either Microsoft undertakes dramatic, real steps, through its marketing, wholesale, and retail operations to assure that Halo 3 is not sold, via the Internet and in stores, directly to anyone under 17, or I shall proceed to make sure that Microsoft is held to that standard by appropriate legal means. I have done that before successfully as to Best Buy, and I shall do so again as to Microsoft and all retailers of Halo 3."
April fools was last month.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
...because the low Earth orbit clutter problem just got a lot worse with all the pigs up there.
I mean, they must be, since I'm going to be rooting for Microsoft to win a lawsuit.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
I never thought I would root for Microsoft, but I hope they destroy Jack Thompson.
Who do you root for in a case like this? I mean, I don't always approve of Microsoft. And Thompson, well... ...I take it back. Go Microsoft! Wipe the floor with this punk!
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Why does this guy feel the need to force his "morality" on everyone? What makes him right and everyone else wrong? He's likely just the biggest douchebag in the world, but I was wondering if anyone, anywhere can defend him.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
First, the title of this article is a misnomer. He's threatening to sue. He hasn't sued yet.
How is Microsoft supposed to take drastic measures to ensure retailers don't sell its games to people under 17? I wouldn't be upset if Microsoft started a "17 means 17" program, where if they received proof of a retaler selling "M for Mature" games to people under 17, they would cut off that retailer from all shipments of Microsoft products for 6 months. But is it practical?
If it was Wal-mart, would Microsoft cut them off or give them a stern warning? When I was young and working temp gigs at Disney, I spent a few days calling video stores that had broken street date on video releases, getting a store manager on the line, then handing them over to a Disney manager to chew them out and threaten them with not getting future releases.
But one thing that was interesting was one of my co-workers told me how Costco got away with it all the time. They were such a huge retail channel for Disney videos, Disney couldn't afford to threaten Costco, so they just had to take a "grin and bear it" posture in those cases, filing a protest but unable to make threats.
I'm sure Microsoft doesn't want to see young kids getting their hands on violent games and they're not doing tobacco industry style strategy sessions on how to sell "Halo 3" to 10-year-olds. OTOH, how much can they actually do when they're not the ones actually controlling the point of sale?
Start a happiness pandemic
I think that God was trying to blast Jack Thompson with his lightning bolts and got Jerry Fallwell instead. A pity.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
I will not be happy until every last video game is banned. Video games are the cause of all of society's problems. Stop creating them, you godless hackers.
Are you threatening me?
He's a lunatic that feeds off attention.
Why give him ammunition?
And what's this nonsense?
Yeah... killer training... because pushing buttons on a controller is exactly like firing a rifle.
Seems like more grandstanding. I'd say Thompson is off his meds... but frankly, I'm not sure he was ever on them.
A Human Right
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
...so who do I root for here?
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
I wouldnt, who knows where that things been.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
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Jack Thompson's goal isn't to prevent Halo 3 sales.
It's quite clearly to get himself and Microsoft's lawyers in the same room at the same time. That much concentrated evil will surely create a gateway to hell and let through all the imps, pain elementals, and cyberdemons. Then his purpose for preventing people kids from playing Doom will become clear as his armies rampage unhindered and he begins his thousand year reign over all the nations of the earth!
The television will not be revolutionized.
I seriously hope that idiot goes through with this. It'll be amusing to watch Microsoft counter-sue idiot into oblivion.
Isn't there a law about threatening a lawsuit? Could this finally be the last straw that causes idiot to be disbarred entirely? Not that he couldn't still hire another idiot to act as his attorney, but I suspect it'll become more expensive for idiot to continue threatening companies in this manner.
... because really, they're just distributing a video game. This attack on gaming is stupid, just like many other laws trying to prevent social activities. It's a futuristic combat game, there is nothing REAL about any of it. The supposedly realistic world the game takes place in is a complete fictional fabrication. Unless Jack thinks Microsoft has a fucking time machine and knows that this is the true future. :-)
... cause that's like real. Or how about violence in film? That is a depiction of real people, handling pseudo-weapons that are designed to look like real weapons, and through the use of special effects, depict the actual killing of people in as much graphic detail as possible (cause it looks cooler). He really needs to stop acting like a fucking crusader for the war on video games. I am under the impression that there is no "moral majority" backing any of his actions, and the generation of adults who grew up playing video games will just want Mr. Thompson to shut up.
Why doesn't he focus his effort on banning violence from news reports
And if he brings up the recent VT shootings, from what I understand of Cho's background, that he didn't play video games.
Can someone please throw a cream pie at Thompson, like ASAP? Someone already nailed BillyG with a pie, someone needs to get Jack.
He just kicked the 800-pound gorilla in the nuts.
This is so wonderful. This story just made my day.
You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people. - notnAP, #26891325
... Laywer Jack Thompson was killed in a tragic incident at his home a few minutes ago, early reports seem to indicate assassination by means of a thrown chair. The state of the scene have led police to believe a large ape like creature is to blame, local Zoo's have been contacted.
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
As a parent I wish to let someone have the responsibility of bringing up my kids right, I am tired or trying to stop them doing things that they shouldn't...
I am going to buy Halo 3 for my own enjoyment, and I want Jack Thomson to personally come to my house here in PA and keep them out of the room so they don't see the graphic violence as I take the convenant and flood once more... You go Jack, I assume because your self righteous head is so far up your own self righteous ass, that you won't even need me to pay you...
I love you Jack, you are my hero, I hereby grant you all of my parental responsibility, since you are so much better at it than me. I urge parents on slashdot to do the same.
The man is an idiot, I bet the guy who reads Bill's mail got a good laugh. Jack Thomson should NOT breed.
I'm Australian. So unless you've got a thing for over-zealous, insane lawyers (or fat, dirty legal entities with rights similar to an individual), I'd suggest your girlfriend. Wait-
Hopscotch - an online comic.
Can we please return parental control back to parents? I was under the impression that Thompson et al preach traditional values and the "reinstitution" of family. If you really want to feed the lawyers, please ask the courts to force families to be responsible for raising their kids, not to take the responsability away from it. Thank you.
Note to self: get a sig.
Not that I would be against a law to state that it is illegal for someone to sell mature video games to kids, but come on a violent video game is way less dangerous then drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol. 99.9% of kids can play violent video games and not be any way affected by them. And those that are affect usually have other contributing factors that make it so. There is no way Microsoft could assure that there game is never sold to children. Look at all the before mentioned products, they still get sold to kids all the time even though its illegal by law. Jack Thompson is fighting the wrong people. He needs to be helping parents learn how to be parents. Most young kids don't have the money to buy a 50 - 60 dollar game. Let alone a several hundred dollar console.
The quote (bah, I didn't RTFA) says nothing about age.
Just let him do it, and then when he sues, Microsoft can just tell him that they didn't sell to anyone under 17" of height. Or cm, or mm, or lbs, or you get the idea.
How do I know?
* The writing style is juvenile, and though Thompson may be a fool, he is a lawyer, which means he knows how to write official-looking documents, and that was too casual for even a professional memo.
* Who the hell has ever heard of GameAlmighty? Attention whores like Thompson don't CC legal threats to unheard-of small gaming blogs with about a hundred readers. They CC it to NBC or something.
* Who the hell has ever heard of GameAlmighty? Claiming to have received a letter from Jack Thompson is an extremely effective way to get hits.
* Thompson already sent a letter to Bill Gates, about Counter-Strike. If he was going to send a letter about Halo 3, it would likely go to Steve Jobs.
* Again with the writing style. It just feels very, very wrong. Can we get a literature/psychology professor/professional to analyze these?
I know I'm going to get modded down for this, but I'll be the one laughing. Or maybe you will, and I'll be laughing at myself. I could be wrong.
There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
Please crush Jack Thompson in a very public way. Show the world how mistaken he is, and make him a laughingstock.
For this, I would change my position and buy an XBox.
Thank you.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
... perhaps it's time Jack Thompson had his own icon.
It could look like that Marge Squirrel from that episode of The Simpsons when Marge was all upity against Itch and Scratchy.
Just a thought.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the ESRB's rating system have no legal ground at all? Therefore it's not illegal for stores to sell to u-18s....depends on store policy.
it would be one case I would hope Microsoft wins. Seriously, Jack Thompson is a blithering idiot. I find it quite funny that there are many games out there far more violent than the ones he chooses to single out, yet it is like he is oblivious, Oh wait, that's right... he is!
What really amazes me is the man hasn't gone after the Wii(at least to my knowledge). Come on, a game like Red Steel should be a big fat target for this guy. Not to mention Metroid Prime 3, which is a game that is making some buzz. You would think the controls used in these games would seriously disturb him, those Wiimotes are more like guns than any 360 or PS controller could ever be!
... sue him first.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
good luck with that jack.
and by 'good luck' I mean, 'I hope you die in a fire'
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Actually, MS's games division are really nice guys. At some point, MS basically decided to open a console division, and did so by throwing money at the most passionate game dorks they could find, then giving them space to do what they wanted to do. Because the division is reasonably young, and the older executives largely keep their hands off of it, it's not plagued by the infighting that the rest of MS is.
I originally wanted the Xbox to fail miserably in the market, lest the beast from redmond do to consoles what they did to operating systems. But, by and large, the games division has been run by a bunch of stand-up guys doing good stuff. And I'm not just saying that because I've met them, but also from what they've done. You have to admit, the Xbox 360 is no MSN.
The ______ Agenda
No, it would read: That's the dumbest fucking letter I've read since I've been at Microsoft. Regards, Bill Gates.
JEG / SYD / AU
Agreed.
Jack is the biggest joke in the game industry already but he also costs people millions in litigation for his causes. You remember that old line "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" it's become "it's all fun and game until someone litigates" and Thompson has proven he's willing to do that.
Hell just when you think Thompson might give the public a break for a month, he comes out again such as this.
He's a member of the old guard of lawyers, the fast-talking, slam-dunking moralizers. He doesn't care about the facts, facts have a godless liberal bias. It was proven that Cho Seung-Hui did NOT play any video games, much less trained on them- but that didn't stop Ol'Jack from jumping in the minute the first VT student's body hit the floor to claim that he was a GTA maniac.
The worst part is that he actually got airtime to say this complete fabricatio`on national television
So sad...
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
I really had to concentrate.
I still have to concentrate. Keeping a journal helps (I use TiddlyWiki). By creating regularly a journal, you can do a summary of what you have accomplished, and you can map out what you want to do.
It comes down to planning. Start with a plan, then concentrate on the separate steps of the plan.
It is a little bit like repeating a mantra. Sometimes working on a project gets boring, or you desperately need to understand something, or design something, repeat to yourself the end goal of your target.
Also, try to stop thinking about the mountain of work that lies ahead of you. If you have a large project, thinking about the amount of work that needs to be done can very easy demotivate you. When that happens, concentrate on the small thing that you need to accomplish NOW.
I started my project in August last year. I started with a kind of plan. I had the following goals :
By creating a plan, and always concentrate on my end goal, I was able to start this project, and write pages of upfront documentation before implementing each part of the digital library.
By the end of November, most of this library was complete, in December I started designing my architecture, and the ISA was ready by Januari.
Do not get distracted by possible optimisations. Once I got together my ISA and implementation architecture, I had to go ahead with building a real system from the libraries I designed, even when there where some small, non-critical errors in it. Keeping a journal can help here, too. Write about your possible changes in it, so that you have a reference, but let them alone until your system works.
One has to keep oneself in line with the desired goal. For some people this comes natural (although I tend to assign to such people a lack of imagination), for others, especially with a vivid imagination, this is not so easy. I presume it comes down to conditioning.
I was also tired of myself, of not being able to do something that I really wanted, or at least start something and really go through with it, until it was finished, and note merely barely working.
Do not forget to take rest, but take a rest which clears your head. For that I have my garden, and I like to read, but not difficult things (this should only be done in the context of your project). It should relax your brain from the concentration that you need to focus on your project.
The above list is just a summary of the things that I have done. I think it comes down to : concentrate on your plans, concentrate on your goals, file away things that are not relevant to what you want to do.
And I think one more important aspect : be prepared from the onset to say to yourself that you will not be sorry dumping all the rest of your ideas, at the advantage of the one thing that you would like to work on.