Great news for gamers and speech advocates. A judge in the Alabama court case is deciding on whether or not to revoke Jack Thompson’s license to practice law, as well as removing him from the case. The court case revolves around a kid who killed two police officers, and a dispatcher. The lawsuit is against: Sony, Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar, Wal-Mart, and GameStop in which Thompson claims, “Grand Theft Auto trained the kid to become a killer.
Source : GamesIndustry.biz
“When Judge Moore asked Thompson to justify some of the statements made in his press releases, he replied: “I’m not pretending I’m not a nice guy. I’m not pretending I don’t have a temper.”
“Judge Moore has taken the motion to revoke Thompson’s license under advisement, and is also considering a motion to have the entire suit dismissed on the grounds that the First Amendment, which provides for freedom of speech, applies to videogames. The defendants’ lawyers also claim that Devin Moore’s actions could not have been foreseen.”
Lets all hope that our little Jacky Boy gets his licensed Disbarred, because lets face it, among gamers alike we all hate Jack Thompson efforts to remove free speech and creativity in our games today. It is not up to the developers to manage content of their game, but rather the distributors, and most importantly the parents. Parents do us all a favor, actally be parents and see what the heck your 12 year old is doing?
November 7th, 2005 at 10:29 pm
Well I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. This guy is under the false impression that all non-gamers will support him back him up 100% even if he doesn’t have anything to justify his arguments. But there really is no way to justify his arguments. They are aimed toward the wrong group of people. But above all else he thinks his baseless arguments can bypass one of the basic civil liberties that makes us American. He has no chance with this case. I hope his license does get taken away.
November 7th, 2005 at 10:47 pm
So jack will fall.. that just leaves a vacancy for the next worthless prick to pick up where jack left off.
With joy comes those that wish to take joy away. Even if Jack is gone there will always be a figure like Jack pissing off gamers… this is just a small victory for gaming, until we get like am amendment that says video games don’t do shit to cuase violence and all that we will always deal with this shit.
Either way the way the man practiced law was complete crap he would pull statistics out of his ass and use the media and public to scare people into supporting him.. but I think we are all failing to see a larger problem.
hilary clinton… god knows what someone like that a women could do to our mothers and video game providers(laughs)
November 7th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
Hilary Clinton? We don’t have anything to worry about, because…
a) There will never be a woman president
b) There is nothing any politician could do to limit the thing developers can include in their games without violating our civil liberties
November 7th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
I never said she could touch the content or anything, just influence the women of america.. imagine if opera went against games.. she controls like 80% of the women in america rofl.
oh well just like speculating.. god knows someone worse will come along :’(
November 9th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
Psht, this is a freedom of expression for game companies. They make it through the restrictions and thus should be able to be protected.
Really, I do not care about Jacko. His actions and level of intelligence questions me how he got a license in Law. He dared game companies to do such an action as create a mod for GTA and thus doesnt go through with the agreement. On top of that unprofessionalism, he shows ot act as a 5 year old with just colorful word choice. Hell, he was threating others as well and thus that can be sued apon. I just see him as a unprofessional cry baby that if he doesnt get what he wants, he’ll being nazi hulk about it.
Anyways, thanks for the news!