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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Sep 25th 2003 11:00am





Blame The Video Game Goes Class Action

from the make-it-stop,-please dept

The latest in the long line of stories about anti-video game lawyer Jack Thompson's plan to blame video games for all of society's ills, is to take his latest case against the publishers of Grand Theft Auto and turn it into a class action suit. Considering the case is about a couple of kids who went out and shot up some cars on the highway, I'm wondering how the hell they'll come up with a "class" for this suit. Thompson is claiming he's heard about "hundreds" of people who were "killed by these games". Hey, Jack, no one was "killed by these games". They're video games. They don't kill. They're not even used to kill. They're just games. Thompson is actually making the situation worse by not putting the blame on those who deserve it: the criminals who committed the actual crime.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Crack cocaine doesn't murder people either

    identicon
    dorpus, Sep 25th, 2003 @ 5:16pm

    Yet, its users have a tendency of murdering people, so we outlaw it.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Nate, Sep 25th, 2003 @ 6:28pm

    While he's at it, why isn't he also filing a suit against the publisher of Deer Hunter? I understand that MANY hunters are "accidentally" shot during the myriad of hunting seasons. Seems like there ought to be a case there.

    Nate

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Crack cocaine doesn't murder people either

    identicon
    Reality, Jun 11th, 2004 @ 2:25am

    That's extremely close to being a really good point, but it fails miserably. Crack Cocaine is not outlawed because of specific traits found in its users. If that were the primary reason for outlawing drugs, then why are things like Marijuana outlawed? I have yet to see somebody go get high then run around being destructive. Many drugs induce calmness, peace, happiness, or lassitude, none of which are harmful. However, they are still illegal. Obviously, therefore, we cant assume that drugs are outlawed due to harmful effects. Personally, I dont use drugs, and I dont approve of them, but we still need to look at the facts here...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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