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Jack Thompson Sets His Sights On Halo 3
GamePolitics is reporting that anti-game advocate Jack Thompson is seeking to have Halo 3 declared a nuisance to the public in Florida. He tried the same stunt with Bully, and failed then too. "As with Bully, Thompson clearly hopes the court will grant him a hearing. Although after last year's well-publicized Bully performance, which earned Thompson a Bar complaint from presiding Judge Ronald Friedman, that seems unlikely. More troubling by far are the long term implications of this action. Thompson apparently feels emboldened to invoke Florida's public nuisance law against any video game he desires to target. That is the essence of censorship and the video game industry cannot allow it to continue on any number of grounds - legal, moral or creative."
TFA quotes parts of the Florida law related to nuissance. To sum up even more, something can be declared a nuissance if it damages the moral well-being of the community. The law uses prostitution and gambling as an example.
These sorts of laws exist for your own protection. If you would choose to engage in these activities, then obviously you are ignorant of the harmful effect it can have on your life and afterlife. So if Jack thinks Halo is morally harmful to those who play it, then he's right and it will be banned as long as a majority of the people agree with him.
But seriously, we see stories like this in the news all the time, and we continue to fail to see the actual cause of the problem. People like Thompson and others are just using the system that is in place for their own gain. That makes them smart, not stupid. It is the system that is stupid. If ridiculous laws like this didn't exist to begin with, then ridiculous cases like Jack's would never even be heard in court.