Violent Video Game Law Struck Down 502
The Importance of writes "Washington State banned the sale of violent videogames depicting violence against 'law enforcement officers' to minors under age 17. When challenged, the law was blocked by a preliminary injunction. Yesterday, a federal district court decided that the law was unconstitutional because it failed the strict scrutiny test and was also void for vagueness. Read the 15-page decision [PDF]. A summary of the case's holdings with quotations here."
Re:i love violent games. (Score:5, Informative)
To steal an example from Michael Moore, why do these people playing violent games mean that is what caused their violent actions? The Columbine kids liked bowling as well, but no one is trying to say bowling causes violent actions. While it is easy to say that most people who committ acts of violence see violent video games and movies, that ignores the fact that most people who see voilent videos games and movies do not committ acts of violence.
Re:i love violent games. (Score:4, Informative)
Don't be too ashamed, its a common misunderstanding to think correlation means causation. I highly suggest reading this course on Causal Reasoning [cmu.edu] from CMU.
Study vs. Study (Score:3, Informative)
The most telling part of the article is the tagline at the end - "Media violence is only one of many factors that contribute to societal violence," Anderson has written, "and is certainly not the most important one."
Re:i love violent games. (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not perfect, nor are my children. But we spend a lot of time just talking to them about what's going on in their lives. That's where you find out how they're applying the skills you've taught them.
"So and so did this" and "so and so said that" are what you hear. "How did you take it? How did you respond?" are your responses. You get to the right and wrong pretty easily, and very often they'll make you proud in how they deal with adversity they come up against. Don't get me wrong... when they do something irresponsible or downright wrong, not only do we have lengthy conversations with them, but punishment is dealt out as well. One of the hardest things to do in the world is to punish your own child, but it's an important factor in their growth, when appropriate.
That being said, most people can't afford to supervise their children 24x7. But if you're at all suggesting that schools are part of the problem, then I'll simply write you off as one of those parents who think school is a babysitter and you should let them teach your children behavior skills rather than you having to do it.
Doubt anyone will read this at this point, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Zelda 3 - The first dungeon of the game is nothing but killing LEOs.
Metroid 3 - You remember that corpse in a spacesuit in front of the door to Kraid? Now, that's most likely another bounty hunter like Samus, and thus could be seen as a LEO.
Final Fantasy. Any Final Fantasy - Most notable is Final Fantasy IV, where the first half of the game is spent directly fighting the most powerful nation in the world.
Super Mario Bros. - You spend the entire freakin' game flattening goombas and stomping koopas, who are trying to kill Mario by direct order from King Koopa.
The list goes on and on. This is the problem with broad laws - they can be used to cover literally anything if you look at it from the right angle.
Castlevania - The story of a proud nation ruled by the ageless Count Dracula, and it's struggle against the treasonous Simon Belmont. Hundreds - nay, thousands of Dracula's innocent followers have been mindlessly slaughtered by this heartless terrorist who is hell bent on overthrowing the great leadership.
Etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Re:i love violent games. (Score:5, Informative)
Around the time of the red scare and HUAC the comic book industry feared being black balled as communists so they voluntarly censored themselves for over 30 years. No shadow could be cast over a law enorcemnt officers, government was blindly trusted, and no talk of drugs (even anti-drug story's). Personally, I'm glad that's changed. I couldn't tolerate living in a fake, leave it to beaver world.
As far as cutting class and slapping women are concerned, country music has been doing that for decades, and people have been romanticizing killers and gangsters for even longer. And it's not cool to be a drug dealer, but some people have nowhere else to go and there's too much money to be made. I do recall some of the prohibition era gangsters being idolized too.
Same product, new wrapper.
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:5, Informative)
I find your proposition interesting. Can you provide links to reputable, scientific studies showing a positive correlation between pornography and rape?
On the contrary, most of the reputable sources [64.233.167.104] I can find have distinct quotes such as:
and
Re:Someone help me out with this one... (Score:3, Informative)
But why is a type of speech restricted simply because it isn't used to speak out against 'the Man'?
It's not. If we're referring to obscenity, it's restricted because it is believed to have "a substantial tendency to deprave or corrupt its readers by inciting lascivious thoughts or arousing lustful desires" (Commonwealth v. Isenstadt (1945), 318 Mass. 543 [62 N.E.2d 840, 844], or People v. Wepplo, 78 Cal.App.2d Supp. 959 [findlaw.com], free reg req'd).
There are other classes of speech that typified by GTA, for instance which may also have a substantial tendency to corrupt. Let's identify one such class as 'depictions of violence' for the moment. Now, depictions of violence may have a substantial tendency to corrupt, but because they are often used as vehicles of social or political commentary, are protected under the First Amendment. That's what this case (Video Software Dealers Assoc. v. Maleng [corante.com], PDF) is about.
Obscenity, by legal definition, is "utterly without redeeming social importance" (Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957) [findlaw.com]). The full context of that quote is as follows:
Because the obscenity has "a substantial tendency to deprave or corrupt", it is considered to be bad for society. Now, were obscenity used for social change, then it would be protected under the First Amendment. But it's not, so it isn't. From Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942) [findlaw.com]:
Now, let's get back to VSDA v Maleng, since that's what this article is about. In the case of depictions of violence, it also may be considered to be bad for society. However, these are frequently works which contain vehicles for social opinion. That means that they merit First Amendment protection. The judge in this case said:
Contrary to apparent popular opinion, the government doesn't feel that violence is "less profane" than sexual content (which is distinct from obscenity, Roth v. US [findlaw.com]).
Contact Info for Bill Author (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/members/d36_2.htm
I encourage you to contact her regarding this outtrageous, unconstitutional law.