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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."

24 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares! by guysmilee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who cares ... he loses every court battle!

    1. Re:Who cares! by drydirt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who cares ... he loses every court battle!

      I care. He might win one.

      (We're talking about Florida after all, not exactly a bastion of sanity)

  2. Nuisance by Seumas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why is he allowed to keep doing this? He should be punished for his endless series of nuisance lawsuits and then he should be held accountable for damaging reputations and businesses with his slanderous, ridiculous, attention-seeking, self-serving accusations. That he is given endless court and television time is highly offensive.

    1. Re:Nuisance by SparkleMotion88 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Nuisance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's pretty sad, but it can require something REALLY bad in order to actually disbar a lawyer
      A single bullet ought to do the trick nicely.

      (Yes, Mr Thompson, chalk up another on your pathetic list of "death threats"! Because every AC on Slashdot is actually a murderer - no, worse than that, a gamer in disguise!)
    3. Re:Nuisance by InvalidError · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If he keeps filing non-case cases, he'll get more reprimands and if he persists to the point of actually become considered a nuisance by too many judges, I guess he could eventually get disbarred for repeatedly filing frivolous and potentially anticonstitutional cases. Should such a fortunate event occur, he could still file suits but would need to convince some other lawyer to risk his name on the case... so we'd be far less likely to see any more of his cases reach the courts.

      Jack is video gaming's Doc Mailloux... they claim to operate from higher moral grounds but the world would be far better off without them.

  3. Crazy! by Zebra_X · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What? Halo 3 is just another FPS. What is so deplorable about Halo? Actually - it might be a good thing to get MSFT's legal department rolling on crushing this retard.

  4. I'm getting tired of this... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He was funny a couple of years ago, but it's like an annoying joke that was funny at first and then starts driving you nuts. I wish he just shut up.

    1. Re:I'm getting tired of this... by techpawn · · Score: 3, Funny

      In soviet russia you drive jokes nuts...

      --
      Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
    2. Re:I'm getting tired of this... by jimstapleton · · Score: 4, Funny

      So, what you are saying is...

      Jack Thompson = Family Guy?

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  5. More press? by Scutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why do we keep giving this guy air time? Enough with the Jack Thompson stories already.

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  6. Sometimes... by 644bd346996 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... Goliath actually manages to kill David.

  7. It is important to our cause to give publicity by netsavior · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Jack Thompson is the greatest asset we have in our fight to keep video games from being villified and banned/censored.

    The primary spokesperson of the anti-video game movement is clearly a psychopath. Completly batshit crazy. If he was not crazy, and used logical (sounding) conclusions and appealed to reasonable or religious sensibilities he would be MUCH more dangerous to free speech than he is.

    So we MUST give him lipservice, we must work to keep his illegal, crazy shenanagins in the news, because as long is he is their front-man, we will always win.

  8. Re:Payroll by Baby+Duck · · Score: 4, Informative

    He minus well get paid by Take two and Microsoft.

    minus well? MINUS WELL? It's "might as well".

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    "Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins

  9. Re:Payroll by GrayCalx · · Score: 5, Funny

    He minus well ...

    Brilliant. Truly brilliant. The best part is its not even close to the actual letters for the word(s) he meant to say. So I take that to mean he really believes thats what people are saying when they use that phrase. That cracked me up, seriously, that had me Latching Out Lard.

  10. Re:Why is he still allowed to practice law? by nuzak · · Score: 4, Informative

    > I seem to recall him being thrown out of a courtroom in Alabama because he didn't even have the legal right to practice law there

    You don't need to be licensed in a state to practice there. You get admitted pro hac vice (literally "for the occasion"), and it's usually a rubberstamp thing as long as you have a valid license in another state. Thompson's behavior in the Alabama case was so abominable that he had his pro hac vice status revoked for that case, plus a requirement to attach the order to any further applications in Alabama. In other words, he's effectively been disbarred in that state.

    Keep in mind that if Wacko Jacko gets disbarred in Florida, it will almost certainly be a temporary suspension of his license. It's virtually unheard of for a lawyer to be permanently disbarred for misconduct that isn't a felony or blatant ethics violation. Jack may have committed the latter on occasion, but most of his pleadings these days aren't for any client but himself.

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    Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
  11. Did you read the complaint? by strredwolf · · Score: 4, Funny

    I took a look through it, and one thing struck me odd:

    Jack says (in the lawsuit filing) that the release date for Halo 3 is: October 25th, 2007.

    Real release date? Tomorrow.

    FAIL, Jack. FAIL.

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    # Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
    $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
  12. Re:Payroll by thesandtiger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or he's using voice recognition software in Vista.

    Eye yam woozy-sing hat cane clotbear.

    --
    Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
  13. FYI by BytePusher · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I read through Mr. Thomson's COMPLAINT FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND FOR BREACH OF AGREEMENT to see what he was complaining about. Otherwise he is seeking legal action for Best Buy not obeying a settlement they agreed upon:

    13. When plaintiff first filed an action similar to this in Miami-Dade Circuit Court it was against defendant Best Buy to stop the sale of "Mature-rated" video games at its stores to customers under the age of 17. Best Buy settled that suit by agreeing to henceforth age ID any customer who appeared to be 21 years of age or younger in order to intercept and prevent any sales to anyone under 17. Best Buy announced this new policy nationwide.

    I'm not a lawyer, but I think this is the "Breach of Agreement" part of his complaint. I suspect he has a case for this portion of his complaint.

    Below is the stuff about the game itself:

    9. Halo 3 is a video game that allows the virtual reality player to rehearse violent acts resulting in the death of one's virtual victims. Lee Boyd Malvo, the younger of the two "DC Beltway Snipers" was trained on Halo to kill residents within Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. His "mentor," John Muhammad, knew the efficacy of the first Halo video game in this regard, because the Army in which he served used this same murder simulator to train snipers to kill. Malvo learned well on Halo.

    10. The role of Microsoft's Halo in the "DC Beltway Snipings" was reported on NBC News and was introduced into evidence in the trial of Lee Boyd Malvo.

    11. The proof as to the causal nexus between violence simulation video games and real-world violence is legion, but one of the more notable proofs is found in the August 2005 Report of the American Psychological Association that establishes the direct causal link between violent teenaged video game play and teenagers' aggression. The recent U. S. Supreme Court case of Roper v. Simmons, which struck down the juvenile death penalty, cites the brain scan studies similar to those coming out of Harvard, Indiana, and Michigan State Universities that prove that these violent games are processed in a different part of the brain in adolescents and teens than in adults, and it is the sector of the brain that leads of teen violence copycatting these violent games like Halo 3.

  14. GTA, Bully, Halo, and then... by oahazmatt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thompson: As you can see, this so-called "game" features underlying propoganda...
    Judge: ...where?
    Thompson: ...Veiled commands of violence against others...
    Judge: What?
    Thompson: ...and subliminal messages designed to turn our children into soulless killing machines.
    Judge: I'm sorry, I don't see it. The court finds in favor of the defendent. Viva Pinata may remain on shelves.

    --
    Those who believe the Internet is private,
    find their privates are on the Internet.
  15. Re:For a second there.. by EricTheMad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I thought Slashdot was smarter than to give this idiot any attention at all. You must be new here. Slashdot is made up entirely of idiots seeking the attention of other idiots by posting clever responses to stories or other peoples comments. If you don't believe me, just read this post again.
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  16. Re:Payroll by Disseminated · · Score: 5, Funny

    For all intensive purposes your wright. Its to bad I don't have no mod point's but if I did I would of. Irregardless, you'r point is much more affective then the usual drivel around hear.

  17. Ah yes... by l0b0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Good thing this guy keeps reminding me which games to buy. He's not paid by the game developers? Shucks.

  18. Re:READ HIS LAWSUIT by festers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a parent, I'll decide what my kids can and cannot play/read/listen to. Not a corporation and certainly not a lunatic lawyer.

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    "Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."