Supreme Court srikes down Law Banning the Sale of Violent Video Games

[Centurion1]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-strikes-calif-law-banning-sale-of-violent-video-games-to-minors/2011/06/26/AGwtxenH_story.html

Pretty interesting opinions. Thomas' position was sort of bizarre. Scalia's was pretty much what most of us would say.

I'm not expecting much dissent about this on a video game forum hahahahaha

[Ironside]

I'm curious how large exactly the market is for games that you can:


while protecting a sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her?” Breyer wrote.


He described games in which players can reenact the killings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech; in which the goal is raping Native American women or killing ethnic and religious minorities; in which new technology may allow a player to “actually feel the splatting blood from the blown-off head” of a victim.

It really does feel like pulling the nastiest example out of some odd inde game (that's pretty much outside the regulation anyway) and then use it to hit the main stream market.

[Major Robert Dump]

Several things upset me about this article, things that I learned that I did not know before:

First, the definition of a violent video game:

The law targeted games that allow a player the option of “killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting” a human image. The definition of a violent video game was one that as a whole lacks “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” and appeals to minors’ “deviant or morbid interests.”

That pretty much means every game is a violent game. Also ....

Scalia noted that the court has said that some forms of expression lack First Amendment protection — obscenity, incitement, “fighting words.” But last year, in an 8 to 1 vote in United States v. Stevens, the court struck down a federal law making it a crime to sell videos of animal cruelty. Alito dissented.

I'd like to meet the douche who wrote that federal law and approved it. Sounds like a ploy to eliminate hunting games. Can't shoot a horse? Can't kill a dog? Really. These people are idiots.

Next, was Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas who said this:
Thomas based his support for the law on an originalist view of the Constitution. “ ‘The freedom of speech,’ as originally understood, does not include a right to speak to minors without going through the minors’ parents or guardians,” he wrote.

ORLY? The forefathers intended this? I suppose they also said no tobacco until 18 and no alcohol until 21. I thought these guys were educated. I'm sure when they wrote the bill of rights they were thinking about communication to minors. We as a country consider our kids only "adults" long, long after they have become adults and "protecting" them has more to do with control and tough love than it does with anything rational or legal. There are just as many "adult" 15 and 16 year olds as there are "childish" 25 year olds.

Ok, done ranting

[Centurion1]

Several things upset me about this article, things that I learned that I did not know before:

First, the definition of a violent video game:

The law targeted games that allow a player the option of “killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting” a human image. The definition of a violent video game was one that as a whole lacks “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” and appeals to minors’ “deviant or morbid interests.”

That pretty much means every game is a violent game. Also ....

Scalia noted that the court has said that some forms of expression lack First Amendment protection — obscenity, incitement, “fighting words.” But last year, in an 8 to 1 vote in United States v. Stevens, the court struck down a federal law making it a crime to sell videos of animal cruelty. Alito dissented.

I'd like to meet the douche who wrote that federal law and approved it. Sounds like a ploy to eliminate hunting games. Can't shoot a horse? Can't kill a dog? Really. These people are idiots.

Next, was Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas who said this:
Thomas based his support for the law on an originalist view of the Constitution. “ ‘The freedom of speech,’ as originally understood, does not include a right to speak to minors without going through the minors’ parents or guardians,” he wrote.

ORLY? The forefathers intended this? I suppose they also said no tobacco until 18 and no alcohol until 21. I thought these guys were educated. I'm sure when they wrote the bill of rights they were thinking about communication to minors. We as a country consider our kids only "adults" long, long after they have become adults and "protecting" them has more to do with control and tough love than it does with anything rational or legal. There are just as many "adult" 15 and 16 year olds as there are "childish" 25 year olds.

Ok, done ranting

Oh so feisty!!!!!

Do remember it was a landslide victory for the gaming communities.

[HoreTore]

The real question is what the 50-year old mums will want to ban next, after the hysteria on games has died down.

Smartphones perhaps? Planking?

[Lemur]

THINK OF THE CHILDRENZ!

[Crazed Rabbit]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo

It's a good decision. Though I saw one of the new Mortal Combat fatality scenes on The Daily Show and was stunned by how horrifically violent it was. Still, it's a good decision.

CR

[lars573]

Mortal Kombat has always been that violent.

[Fragony]

Good. But I'm not going to just disregard those who oppose it just yet, videogames and violence are pretty intimate.

[gaelic cowboy]

Though I saw one of the new Mortal Combat fatality scenes on The Daily Show and was stunned by how horrifically violent it was.

CR

It's still not a good enough reason to ban violent games cos I mean were all agreed it's meant for adults, the bigger retailers do seem to adhere to the voluntary rules I have seen kids turned back in HMV with GTA and the like.

[gaelic cowboy]

videogames and violence are pretty intimate.

No one goes around giving out about violent movies anymore they just slap the age rating on it and were done with it.