Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Videogames

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Common sense in the justice system? Who would thought it?

Great news not just for the US but for us on lookers in the rest of the world.

 

[shadowmagus]

My thoughts from another thread
Heres the decision, I suggest you read that if you really want to get a sense of how good of a result this is. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/08-1448.pdf

Scalia's majority decision declares video games as non-unique with regards to regulation (at least with the current state of scholarly debate on the subject), that is you can't single out video games without hitting cartoons or movies. That is the absolute best result we could have hoped for. A nice takeaway from Scalia

Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas?and even social messages?through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player?s interaction with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.

Also interesting is how much of a bullet we dodged with regards to the Alito concurrence. Had Chief Justice Roberts wanted to throw his weight around that concurrence or something quite similar to it could have been the majority decision and that would have been almost as bad as a loss.

I enjoyed this part...

Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively. Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media.

Suck it Fox!

 

[Shirokurou]

Well the Supreme court has to be compenent enough to not be a group of Jack Thompsons. As expected.

 

[Nooners]

Very, very nice to hear. Good way for me to start the day.

 

[Dastardly]

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Videogames

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And there you go. If a Rated R movie can be sold in Wal-Mart one aisle away from VeggieTales and Dora the Explorer, then having a video game that happens to have some swearing and boobs, or God of War-style "implied sex," shouldn't be any more of an issue.

The only reason there is any confusion is because people like those behind this law are still under the impression that "video games are for kids," and so any content in a video game must therefore be directed at kids. It's just like believing that "all cartoons are for kids," so anything animated must be "directed at children."

I understand why they wanted to push this law. I honestly do. They just want to be sure these games only make it to the hands of adults, rather than kids. It's a noble goal, and one I support. The people they need to be talking to, however, are the parents. Tell the parents that not all games are for kids--in fact, fewer than ever these days--and that they need to keep an eye on what their kids watch/play. Show them how they can make decisions using the information already voluntarily provided by publishers.

This law amounted to legal "tattle-tailing." It's just, "Meeeeh. Government, can you tell them that they have to tell the parents what we want to tell the parents, so that we don't have to do it?"

Punks got justiced.

 

[Ferrious]

This is very good news, maybe now we can start to dismiss the claims that video games corrupt.

That said, some people still think The Catcher In The Rye corrupts, so I can't see us making much headway there.

 

[Scabadus]

It's nice to see some unquestionably good news in the world. I'm glad that whatever (and perhaps despite) political-based crackpots American states manage to get into office, the big courts still have some common sense.

 

[Mechsoap]

Oh my science, it did happen... How... Who? How did it pass, since there are so many in the US, who would love to see them banned?

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Wonder what the vote break down was. I'll have to read about it after work.

7-2 in favor of the EMA. Which means one of the judges who was originally for the bill changed his views =D

 

[individual11]

Good, good.

Was thinking of throwing in the towel, but I'll stay working. A decision against the industry would have developers tarred with the same brush as pornographers and merchants of death.

It's heartening to see the Americans aren't just paying lip service to their constitution, any decisions made by their government involving this type of thing echo around the world, affecting nearly everyone.

 

[Cropsy91]

Hell to the yes! So there IS some common sense in the world!

 

[RatRace123]

Suck it Moral Guardians!
Looks like if concerned parents want to protect their children from the "evils" of videogames they're actually gonna have to do it themselves rather than relying on the government.

Great news, I shouldn't really be surprised because the law seemed pretty obviously unconstitutional, but you never know with these things.
Still nice to breathe easy on this issue now.

 

[crotalidian]

Fantastic a great Step towards acceptance.

Do we know if their is an appeal planne dor do SCOTUS Rulings prevent Appeal?

 

[Ickabod]

Reading the ruling, wow the court basically told California what to go do with itself.

It's a good day for freedom!

 

[fierydemise]

I don't fully understand the case, could someone explain to me what's wrong here?

I mean, they're voting for a law that prohibits the sale of adult rated games to minors. Isn't that how movies work as well? What's the issue here?

Sorry I'm not American so I don't really get it, just curious lol.

Well that was actually part of the issue, movies have a voluntary rating system imposed by the industry and enforced by the distributors. Since this exists there is no compelling interest for the government to regulate. One of the primary arguments the EMA made was that the E-T-M system was similar and thus regulation was unnecessary.

California also cannot show that the Act?s restrictions meet the alleged substantial need of parents who wish to restrict their children?s access to violent videos. The video-game industry?s voluntary rating system already accomplishes that to a large extent. Moreover, as a means of assisting parents the Act is greatly overinclusive, since not all of the children who are prohibited from purchasing violent video games have parents who disapprove of their doing so.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

*bursts through a wall* OOHHH YEAAAHHH

Time for a celebratory holiday, I think.

 

[scorptatious]

No words can describe how I feel about this. So I'll just have Twilight Sparkle sum up my feelings:

 

[frehls]

hue