Post by leunas on Jan 10, 2007 15:55:48 GMT -5
According to a GamePolitics report, Massachusetts legislature will consider another game law drafted by anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson, which is modeled after previous failed game bills.
The proposed legislation takes the form of a "games as porn" bill, which lumps videogame sales restrictions in with current porn legislation that is meant to keep inappropriate product out of the hands of minors.
It's also backed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who Thompson says asked him "to draft a bill on his behalf."
Utah bill HB257 was also a "games as porn" bill intended to keep items deemed "harmful to minors" out of kids' hands. That bill died in early 2006. A judge also deemed a similar Louisiana bill (drafted by Thompson) unconstitutional last year.
Like past proposals, this new piece of legislature would keep minors from buying violent games, games with content that is "patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults " and any titles that lack "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors."
GamePolitics cites a state spokesperson who said that "about a dozen members" of the Massachusetts House of Representatives are prepared to sign the bill.
In a note to the website, Thompson addressed the fact that similar bills have failed, but he believes the Boston bill has better backing. "[The Massachusetts legislation] is very much like [the] Louisiana [bill]," he admitted. "The difference is that these people intend to win the court fight, unlike the knuckleheads in Louisiana..."
Thompson has wasted no time in 2007 to continue his anti-game activism. Last week, he sent out a mass e-mail addressed to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates threatening to take legal action against the software giant to block sales of the upcoming multiplatform Grand Theft Auto IV to minors.
www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4501&Itemid=2
The proposed legislation takes the form of a "games as porn" bill, which lumps videogame sales restrictions in with current porn legislation that is meant to keep inappropriate product out of the hands of minors.
It's also backed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who Thompson says asked him "to draft a bill on his behalf."
Utah bill HB257 was also a "games as porn" bill intended to keep items deemed "harmful to minors" out of kids' hands. That bill died in early 2006. A judge also deemed a similar Louisiana bill (drafted by Thompson) unconstitutional last year.
Like past proposals, this new piece of legislature would keep minors from buying violent games, games with content that is "patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults " and any titles that lack "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors."
GamePolitics cites a state spokesperson who said that "about a dozen members" of the Massachusetts House of Representatives are prepared to sign the bill.
In a note to the website, Thompson addressed the fact that similar bills have failed, but he believes the Boston bill has better backing. "[The Massachusetts legislation] is very much like [the] Louisiana [bill]," he admitted. "The difference is that these people intend to win the court fight, unlike the knuckleheads in Louisiana..."
Thompson has wasted no time in 2007 to continue his anti-game activism. Last week, he sent out a mass e-mail addressed to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates threatening to take legal action against the software giant to block sales of the upcoming multiplatform Grand Theft Auto IV to minors.
www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4501&Itemid=2