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Utah Senate, House Pass Jack Thompson's Game Sales Bill
Ars Technica reports that the Utah State Senate and House have both passed Jack Thompson's proposed legislation that would stiffen penalties for the sale of M-rated games to minors. Oddly, on its trip through the state legislature, amendments rendered it largely ineffective; retailers are in the clear if the employee who sold the game goes through a training program, or if the minor misrepresents his age. It's also possible that the bill could cause some retailers to simply take down their ESRB-related advertising. Thompson's statements about the bill put the focus on advertising, but discussion on the Utah Senate floor had a familiar ring, touching on the story of a Grand Theft Auto player who killed two policemen in 2003. The ESRB wrote an open letter in opposition of the bill, saying it could undo the efforts they've made to popularize their rating system. The bill's sponsors fired back, questioning the industry's overall commitment to ratings, and now it awaits only the governor's signature before becoming law.
STILL listening to Jack Thompson? He's already been certified crazy, disbarred with extreme prejudice (out of a cannon, into the sun) and will probably never practice law ever again.
Besides, we all know Jack Thompson died when Penny Arcade was honored by Washington.
Didn't Jack Thompson die?
must be required to at least pass the 3rd grade?
Even if one video game player killed a cop, that doesn't begin to make things equal to cops who kill with tasers, or cops who accidentally kill innocent civilians because they are too fucking ignorant to make sure they are doing the no-knock raid on the right house.
More fairness in legislation! Yes, the Utah legislators are right on the money for this one. God forbid terrorist game players ever leave the grip of their game consoles.... fucking idiots
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From skimming a selection of the linked sources, the gist is that they're using a false advertising angle: if a retailer says "we won't sell M-rated games to children" (like most do), and then sells them anyway, they will be fined; however, if a retailer makes no such claim, they'll be unaffected. So the safest choice for a retailer is to simply drop their voluntary policy not to sell M-rated games to minors, to avoid liability in case they ever make a mistake.
Only three GTA players have killed cops? GTA must make people less likely to kill cops. After all, think of all the killing of cops not associated with GTA players.
Hmm, perhaps an occasional game of fake-blow-shit-up would make disaffected youths less likely to really-blow-shit-up? It is all about the kids, right?
You couldn't pay me to live there. The funny thing is that I know some Mormons who feel the same way. I guess Utah Mormon is a bit of a different breed than Mormons from almost everywhere else. It must be the effect of any one group having a majority. They get to be assholes.
I love how state after state try to pass this exact same bad law, only to have it shot down in the courts and they have to pay legal fines.
Great to know they're doing something productive.
'Training programs' sound like a money-maker for the videogame censorship movement.
Unfortunately, no. You are probably thinking of Jack Valenti, who died in 2007.
Picture the sales clerk saying OK kid! You must first misrepresent your age before I am allowed to sell you this game!
So passing a ridiculous bill but adding amendments to make it ineffective in addition to being ridiculous is a good thing? Good job Utah
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
As a zombie, he must be starving in Utah.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Your post was off topic. There is no First Amendment issue here.
It effectively makes it likely that retailers will completely stop advertising or using ESRB ratings, since it is the least costly way to ensure they never run afoul of the new legislation.
Then the people ragging against video games can point out that retailers don't even follow the ESRB ratings, and claim that the self-regulation clearly is not working, and try to get even more harsh, government backed regulations in place to fully replace the ESRB.
As far as the bills official intent, it seems pretty fail. But it has potential to encourage, and perhaps even achieve, the bills proponents' eventual goals.
The fact that a law is unenforceable doesn't mean that it should be there on the books just for shits and giggles.
If symptoms of a lack of oxygen are taken to include brain death, there is ample evidence they banned oxygen some considerable time ago.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol.
Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are:
Not to mention the fact that DHMO can be connected to almost EVERY murder in the United States! All those people dead because someone was allowing this compound into his or her body.
Just look at some of the uses this deadly chemical is used for:
Jack Thompson must be alive, because I don't remember seeing anything on CNN about an anti-gaming crusader's death being blamed on video games, nor do I remember any recent Congressional hearings investigating weather or not Thompson's death was inspired by the Grand Theft Auto: IV mission where the player must kill an anti-gaming self-proclaimed "moral crusader" attorney, who states, just before the player must kill the man, that "Guns don't kill people. Video games do."
While I do not agree with the bill, no game publisher's free speech is being restricted, no game company is being prosecuted by the government for the content of the games. The games are still able to be sold, and while not as damaging as cigarettes, alcohol, guns (yes, in most states you have to be 18 to jump through the hoops solo to get a gun), or porn, an average, voting citizen's access to the games are not restricted and the game company has not been silenced.
First Amendment law requires strict scrutiny. That means the government must, when regulating sales or distribution of material covered by the First Amendment, demonstrate that its proposed law has the minimum necessary effects required to accomplish its goals. Since the goal (regulating commercial press activity) is unconstitutional to begin with, there's no way the law can meet strict scrutiny.
Seriously. Why do you think that, out of dozens of attempts to pass laws like this in various states, absolutely none of them have survived court challenges?
A further question. The First Amendment puts a free press on an equal footing with the free exercise of religion. What do you think might happen if the Utah legislature attempted to dictate the terms under which Mormon literature and religious items could be sold?
That's not Interesting, that's Funny!
For those moderators who don't get it, Morcombe, Slant and Honeyplace are a famous solicitor's office in Ankh-Morpork, on the Discworld; Morcombe and Honeyplace are vampires, and Slant's a zombie.
"Retailers are in the clear if the employee who sold the game goes through a training program."
I wonder which politicians friend will be given the no-bid contract on administering the "training program"? Should bring in a nice fee... 50% of which can be funneled into back into a campaign fund.
I'm having a hard time connecting the age-limit restriction and the death of two police officers. Is this to say that if a 35 year-old person were to shoot a police officer, we should restrict violent game sales to only those who are 36 or older? These phony imposed age-limits need to go and let parents decide what is best for our kids instead of the government. My kids (13 and 9) will have a harder time drumming up $50 for the game than they would buying it underage anyways.