Jack Thompson Authored Game Bill Introduced In Utah

GyroCaptain

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Jan 7, 2008
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lijenstina said:
"The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path..."
"The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor;
and every day, the paperboy brings more..."
Hmm, that actually sounds like things here at the escapist. Only we're mostly not HARMFUL loonies.
 

KeyMaster45

Gone Gonzo
Jun 16, 2008
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You can lead a horse to water, but you cant convince jack thompson that he's fighting a losing battle. You can't keep games not for children out of children hands if their parent freaking buy it for them.

Sorry Jack, you've had a good run.

Btw, this guy got disbared and people still listen to him? Jesus tap-dancing Christ someone call morgan freeman to weave his ass into the loom of fate.
 

robinkom

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Jan 8, 2009
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Why look, it's one of my top four Americans that should have been early abortions. (Thompson, plus Joe Lieberman, George W. Bush, and Bill O'Reilly).

Why are the stupid ones always allowed to live...!?

It should be a Federal offense just to BE Jack Thompson.
 

Spartan Bannana

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Apr 27, 2008
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Well that bothers me, if only because it means I can't have access to M games any more. Then again, it probably won't hold up, and I don't live in Utah
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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sv93 said:
Thats bill is definitely fair. Selling R games to under 18's is not allowed anywhere is it? Still not as bad as Michael Atkinson.
I'm quoting this not to pick on you but because it seems to encapsulate the sentiment of a surprising number of responses to this.

Non-American readers may be excused for not knowing this but videogames, like other forms of expression, are protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which, as you might guess because it's the first, is an important one. It covers a lot of ground but it's best known as the one about freedom of speech and the press.

Why is this important? Because if courts somewhere decide that videogames aren't entitled to First Amendment protections then suddenly you're looking at a potential "slippery slope" situation; that is, if videogames don't get Constitutional protections, then why shouldn't books be subject to review and control as well? Music? Television shows? Movies? The only material excluded from wide-ranging Constitutional guarantees is that which has been declared declared obscene, which is why it's illegal to sell porn to kids, and also why some wackos have tried to have videogame violence declared obscene.

It is not - NOT - illegal to sell M-rated games to kids. The ESRB rating system is voluntary. There are no laws on the books anywhere in the US that criminalize the sale of videogames to minors, and every attempt to impose such laws - like this one - have been immediately overturned as unconstitutional.

Tell you what, read this and if things remain unclear we'll go from there:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/5491-A-Crash-Course-in-ESRB

One other interesting thing to note, since we're on the topic. You know those MPAA ratings you see movies carrying, G, PG-13, NC-17, all that? That's voluntary too. Nothing legally binding about it.
 

NeoAC

Zombie Nation #LetsRise
Jun 9, 2008
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I think we should all put Jack Thompson and Michael Atkinson on an island somewhere and just let them create whichever crazy laws they want, and apply it to anyone who wants to live there.

So who votes for Skull Island? If they thought Donkey Kong was a mean monkey......
 

Badabinski

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May 7, 2008
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Jack Thompson needs to get the fuck out of my state >_>
Honestly, most people here aren't that red. It's just that we elect fucking retards to the House who are completely out of touch with what we want.
 

Hookman

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Jul 2, 2008
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"Phony First Amendment claims"? God,this fucker is getting more senile by the day! Someone needs to take him round the back and put a bullet through his rotting brain!
 

pieeater911

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Jun 27, 2008
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I like my First Amendment rights the way the are right now. Jacky shouldn't be messing with them.

Somebody just needs to finish off ol' Jacky boy.

It won't be murder, it'll be a very late abortion.
 

FreelancerADP

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Dec 21, 2007
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To add to Malygris comment about missed interpretations-
"The bill simply states: If you promise the public you don't sell adult-rated entertainment to kids, then you had better be telling the truth, because if a parent catches you selling this stuff to his or her kids, then you're guilty of fraud under the Truth in Advertising Law."
Why this is STILL an issue is beyond me, but what this bill does is criminalize what Rockstar did with GTA:SA vis a vis 'Hot Coffee'- that is including in the original code the sex mini-game.

What this bill won't do is make it to where selling an M rated game to a child is illegal.

What this bill will do (provided it stands) is criminalize selling a Y game with M content (ostensibly to anyone; Jack seems to think only kids buy games).

Essentially- It adds videogame content to the purview of the Truth in Advertising act in Utah. And honestly, it's not really a big deal.

EDIT: Even in the case of Rockstar and GTA:SA, the game was rated M at the onset (so is Mass Effect). It was only made AO as an outcry from consumers- Had the minigame been in there in the first place, it probably would have still been rated M.

Titanic has full frontal nudity of the chick and at least one (if not two) sex scenes and was rated PG-13. Team America: World Police was almost rated X due to the sex scene (with the puppets)- It's fucking random what gets rated what.
 

matrix3509

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Sep 24, 2008
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KeyMaster45 said:
You can lead a horse to water, but you cant convince jack thompson that he's fighting a losing battle. You can't keep games not for children out of children hands if their parent freaking buy it for them.

Sorry Jack, you've had a good run.

Btw, this guy got disbared and people still listen to him? Jesus tap-dancing Christ someone call morgan freeman to weave his ass into the loom of fate.
This is where it gets messy. He wants to be the one to decide what constitutes adult content. Once thats done, his work isnt over, because he knows that shitty parents will buy their shitty children those games to get around laws like this. He will try to get all offending material banned "1984" style.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Without reading all the statements (so this seems a bit redundant) this seems like it's business as usual for the players involved. Basically it seems like the same insanity except reversing the wording. Rather than basing things in terms of being "harmful to minors" it exists to use equally broad strokes to what constitutes "adult content". This would in effect override most of the existing laws because it would empower people, irregardless of rating to file lawsuits for false advertising to any game that they want to claim has something too adult in it, without any specific standards being specified. Allowing for totally seperate standards to spin off from this law through precedent, contrary to what is already in existance as rating.

So basically if he passed this, some dude could go out and buy say a "T" rated game with some pretty subtantial violence, probably some T&A and innuendo, and perhaps a bit of general political/social commentary of whatever sort, claim that labeling this game as for "Teens" is wrong due to all that adult content. Taken before local and state courts in places like Utah victories could in theory be won on such grounds to form a body of precedent to advance on more entrenched standards.

Basically, for all comments about him, he IS smart enough to realize that he doesn't have a leg to stand on, and he is trying to get something vague enough for him to work with established somewhere, so he can try and build from that base.

I'm not saying this will work, or even could work if he succeeded, but I think it's pretty clear what he's trying to do. It's a bit more than reaffirming existing laws, it seems to be all about inserting specific wording into law that would open a potential for him to act again with a veneer of legitimacy.
 

lijenstina

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Jun 18, 2008
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GyroCaptain said:
"The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor;
and every day, the paperboy brings more..."
Hmm, that actually sounds like things here at the escapist. Only we're mostly not HARMFUL loonies.
Well Jack is in a another league. With a much longer sleeved straitjacket and more colorfully named diagnosis for his disorder. Not to mention different alien overlords. :)
 

Omnidum

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Mar 27, 2008
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I'm going to go cry from laughter now. He is disbarred, yet is puppeteering another attorney to go the same way?
 

Milkatron

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Jul 18, 2008
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L33tsauce_Marty said:
fix-the-spade said:
Is Utah like the bin where America puts all it's particularly mad crackpots then?

Must be all that desert.
Yeah, its where Stephanie Meyer lives.
It's where all the Mormons live. OF COURSE it's going to be full of crazies.