October 25, 2007 -
On Monday GamePolitics reported on game-hatin' attorney Jack Thompson's plan to file a lawsuit against Best Buy, allegedly for selling M-rated games to minors.Thompson issued a press release yesterday, stating that he had indeed filed the suit in the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court and providing a case number (07-36080).
As we reported, the claim against Best Buy suit looks as if it will be going nowhere. Thompson has also apparently named the ESRB in the suit. That looks like a non-starter as well. His explanation:
The ESRB has been sued by Thompson because it is well known that it a) is owned and operated by the video game industry, b) does not even play the games it rates to conclusion, c) routinely mislabels games as to age appropriateness, per testimony before the U.S. Congress, and is engaged in representations to American parents that the age label are accurate and are keeping “Mature” games out of the hands of kids...
Although we haven't yet seen the complaint, Thompson also apparently takes a shot at Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family. Relations between Thompson the NIMF head have been frosty ever since Walsh publicly distanced himself from Thompson as reported in a GamePolitics exclusive. Thompson writes:
[The lawsuit] details the relationship between Best Buy and the alleged “video game industry watchdog” organization called the National Institute for Media and the Family headed by David Walsh. Both are located in Minneapolis.
GP: Both located in the same city? OMG, they must be guilty!
Attorney Mark Methenitis has a thought-provoking commentary on Thompson's latest stunt at his Law of the Game blog.
Comments
Give the devil my regards.
He is living proof that money, and not brains, buy you qualifications.
To make a video game comparison, its like playing the Burnout series. You know that spectacular crash is coming, and when it does... in slow-motion... its spectacular.
He's like the Britney Spears of law. You can see that its all gonna end in tears, but you can't make them change before its too late.
Then comes Hal Halpin, Rockstar games, Strauss Zelnick, 2K games, Penny Arcade, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony... anyone wanna add? I'm sure there's more.
His stated goal was (paraphrased) to have "stores sued so often they'll stop carrying the games altogether". All he aims for is to harass people. This is how he declares himself succesful despite never actually achieving any real victory at all in over ten years.
He's just using them to smear people. Fill a lawsuit, then spam press releases about it. It doesn't matter if it's baseless, if it fails miserably. Remember his failed lawsuit against the Florida Bar. It was reported even in mainstream media, quoting him as saying "If it wasn't going to be succesful, I wouldn't have filled it". But then did they report when it was dismissed? Where was the press release for that?
He doesn't aim higher than annoying people.
Next thing you know he's going to call Saddam Hussein as a witness and ask for a Ouija board to contact him and ask him what evil violent murder simulator he played to make him kill all of those people.
I'm so glad we have lawyers to dictate what we can and can't do and give us moral clarity. As everyone knows, lawyers fix everything!! Like Healthcare!!
His arguments have been countered at least a dozen times and he still uses them. Jack, this website alone have enough material about you to prove that you don't have ANY ideas what you're talking about.
Credit cards are an reliable age verification method. If a minor is with a credit card, I agree that it would raise some questions. But it's also the prof that that minor's parent were irresponsible. No responsible parent would give their kids their credit card (unlike you). And, didn't you said in the gay porn case that kids couldn't access public domains because they can't have access to a credit card, you contradict yourself here.
You're just a weak lawyer, unreasonable, irresponsible and egocentric. And I'm still feeling I'm being too nice with you.
See what you guys don't realize is that developers actually put stuff at the end of games because they know the ESRB won't play them. Like in Halo 3's final level where it becomes a giant alien orgy and then Master Chief and Cortana get it on while the Arbiter films it.
Clearly Halo 3 should be rated AO, but because the ESRB didn't play to conclusion they missed that whole part.
I think the lawsuit should read more like this:
"The The ESRB has been sued by Thompson because Thompson is a desperate man at the end of his pitiful rope and is grasping at straws."
"I can has lawsoot?"
"I has smarts...wut I du wif it?"
"I'm in ur corthous, spredin da liez"
We need lolJack. Now.
Good luck with that.
Then why is this news?
-P
Also Jack, as a "Good Christian" why can you not ever seem to keep your promises? I'm not familiar enough with the bible to quote it without looking the quote up, but I recall some nasty stuff said about what will happen to promise-breakers and those who bear false witness against others, and I'd contend that that one about people harming children applies to you more than any one in the gaming industry. I believe it mentioned something about it being better to have a millstone tied to their neck and thrown into the ocean. Hypocrites are also warned of severe punishment. Heck, Christ cursed a tree to die since the tree was hypocritical, it was showing signs of bearing fruit but had no fruit even though the season was right. How bad will it be for you who's hypocrisies are blatant, hurtful, based in malice, and are constant and ongoing?
Before you go to remove the mote from your brothers eye, take the plank out of your own that you may see clearly, in this case though you'd realize that the mote you see is just the corner of the plank in your own eye and that your brother is fine.
I looked up the Dante's Inferno on wikipedia, you qualify for 6 out of 10 of the Bolgia's of the 8th level, and none of them are pleasant sounding. At the rate you're going though it looks like you're aiming for 10 out of 10, or maybe even a position in the 9th level. Good luck with that if that is what you're trying for.
As an aside, I was fairly far off on some of my Dante stuff in my prior post, only the 9th level is frozen and I was off in some other major ways, but I'm better now. Now if only I could get over being a newt...
In theory, yes. Well, you can IF you're a citizen of a town/city in Florida. It is also advisable to have some legal standpoint.
What's the point in adding the ESRB to the suit? Does he wanna insure his loss? Even if the ESRB does fail in its job of rating games (and it doesn't), no one has any interest or right to sue them over it. No matter what Jack says, bad rating doesn't kill people.
@ Yuki
That "Top 10 Douchebags of Video Games" was hilarious. All of them made sense. How sad that in a list about video games, Michael Jackson still makes the list.
@ BlackIce
Think of it this way. Jack made a list that was all about fictional characters. The other 9 were annoying/stupid/evil video game characters. And Jack still made the list. What a douchebag.
How the heck can you use your Christian faith at all in this whole matter? Where the bleeding hell does it say anything about videogames in the bible?
Pretty soon you're going to sue GP and all of its posters too, aren't you?
@Malevolent
I would love to have JT declared as a public nuisance.
Okay, how long do you have?
How exactly would we go about declaring Jack Thompson a public nuisance?
I hope you got the rest of this decade to spare for us to tell you.
Adding the ESRB is a non-trivial change in the status of the suit, despite the fact that it still has exactly zero chance of going anywhere.
Also, quoted from Law of the Game responses:
"Maybe we should create a new "law", like "Godwin's Law".
The use of "Protect the children" or "For the children" in an argument automatically results in the failure of that argument."
That was by Nightwng2k. And it is awesome. I fully support this idea.
That may be a good question to ask Mark Methenitis and Mark Standridge.Those guys are more familiar with the public nuisance laws that I am.
This is also I think why he's consented to going to the VGXpo when he wouldn't go to PAX. He's trying to grab asm uch attention as he can before the inevitable. He showed his hand in one of his last posts on the last thread. That he mentions the possibility of being attacked there suggests to me that this is secretly what he WANTS to happen. In some part of his mind, he's hoping some angry gamer there will hurt if not outright kill him. That way he can go out claiming his accusations were valid and martyr himself rather than lose his law license in disgrace.
For those of us who are going, let's agree to not grant him that courtesy, ok? As much as he is an angry, hateful, arrogant, spiteful, ignorant, bigoted, self-righteous little man, we're better than that.
way more than thompson is too.
CC: Video Games, CIA, Zanzibar, Zombie Lincoln, ESRB, US Dept of Justice, Satan, Janet Reno, NWA, Howard Stern, 9-11, Columbine, Morlocks, Best Buy, Atlantis, Florida Bar, and Norm Kent
RE: Thompson Conspiracy
The Jig is up! Run!
I'm gladly going to milk this until the cow looks like it's anorexic.
Sadly, we could not declare him a public nuisance, mainly because it'd never happen. It would be dropped in favor of him being raped by the BAR.
Just ride it out, and then see what you can do about it.
more to the point, didn't Thompson claim that children couldn't get into the court files that hosted his gay porn because they didn't have credit cards?
Show up and be his ad-hoc security team. That would be priceless.
I can see it now, tshirts reading:
"BlackIce Leftie - Jack's Guardian Angel"
"Manta - Jack's Guardian Angel"
"Yuki - Jack's Guardian Angel"
You could even wear red berets, or raspberry berets and one could carry a ghetto blaster on the shoulder blaring the Prince song, while following Jack around keeping him safe from danger... Oh, god, that would be hilarious!
The use of “Protect the children” or “For the children” in an argument automatically results in the failure of that argument.”
Some suggestions :D
Lil' Johnny's law, Lieberman's Law, Thompson's Law.
He's aiming for the center of the earth to make a new geothermal source of energy out of his grave. It's tricky now because he has to hit just the right depth, and since people started moving against him faster than he anticipated he has to pick up his pace now since he started out slow.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/breaking/esbr-hijacks-e-for-all-312886.php
Oh bollocks..
@jds
Could we dress up in KGB Uniforms? I don't like letting old jokes die.
And why the specific hate for Best Buy?
I vote for 'Thompson's Law" It rolls off the tongue easier than the rest.
But this suit will not go anywhere. There is no case here. His two "stings" have no legal standing (which makes me wonder why he has not included Target in the lawsuit as he performed a sting there). Being able to purchase two games with out age verification is not enough to sue. Also he is has publicly stated that he was with his son at the time of purchase.
Asdditionally, no one has proven that the ESRB has performed any deceptive actions in rating games. It has been speculated by members of the opposing party, but never proven.
@ Tenshigami
I thought the ESRB was trying to hide from Thompson by changing their name to the ERBR. ;)
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower