California Appeals Game Law to US Supreme Court

[Rtrace]

What can only be summed up as California taking notes from George W. Bush on how to get the masses distracted and angry at something other than a crippled economy.

The State of California is appealing to a bill that would ban the sales of violent video games in the state. The battle for this bill (despite the you know... crippling economy in California and all) has cost the state almost a quarter of a million dollars in tax payers money.

The original author of this bill State Senator Leland Yee (pictured below, so you all know who to not vote for again next election) has petitioned the Supreme court to review the fight over the law.

In 2007, a circuit court judge struck the law down as unconstitutional but had admitted that he was "sympathetic to what the legislature sought to do".

In February of the same year an appellate court judge also agreed that the law was unconstitutional and also struck it down, but unlike the circuit court judge this one didn't comment.

The bill was signed into law by the Governator but was swiftly challenged in court before it could come into play. The bill sought to ban the sale or rental of "violent video games" to children. Under the law a "violent" game was defined as a "game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being." Under the law, retailers that sold such games would be subject to a $1,000 fine.

The law also stated that a game that was deemed to be "violent" was to have a solid white sticker that was two-inch-by-two-inch placed on it with "18" outlined in black (much like adult movies you seen in some movie stores (for those of us in the US that is).

The stickers are MUCH larger than the standard ESRB rating which is a lot more descriptive as to why the game was rated M in the first place and is't a generalization of the game with a huge "18" which is more than likely to get kids to convince their parents to get the game even more than the smaller "M" would because everyone knows something that has a big "18" on it will sell a lot better than the standard "M" and no law will stop idiotic parents (who started this!) from buying their kids the game..which now has a clear "18" marker on it..probably convinced it means it's got "18 levels" in it..but I digress..

In an interview the governator was quoted as saying: "I signed this important measure to ensure parents are involved in determining which video games are appropriate for their children," adding, "I will continue to vigorously defend this law and protect the well-being of California's kids."

I remember a movie where he was trying to kill a kid... The ESRB in a surprising (not really) turn of events stated that it did not agree with the state for pursuing the matter further.

"California's citizens should see this for what it is--a complete waste of the state's time and resources," ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher said. "California is facing a $21 billion budget shortfall coupled with high unemployment and home foreclosure rates.

Rather than focus on these very real problems, Governor Schwarzenegger has recklessly decided to pursue wasteful, misguided, and pointless litigation."


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[aleXtrm]

haha I love the sarcasm! Personally I think the whole censorship/rating issues have always stunk of hypocracy. Fair enoegh, ban a game like Manhunt for kids, but some violent games out there are really not too violent. Couple that with everything that's on the silver screen. I played the gta 2 when i was nine, gta 3 when i was eleven, etc. I am pretty sure it's pretty much the same for the rest of my generation as well.

Ha my favourite childhood game was Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 which i got when i was 6! Blaming games for making people go crazy and violent and killing their parents friends, etc is retarded, these people have problems in the first place, the games just open up their insanity. The same could happen if they read a book, watch a movie or lose a game of chess.

[bubarub]

your statement of, "Rather than focus on these very real problems, Governor Schwarzenegger has recklessly decided to pursue wasteful, misguided, and pointless litigation." is so dumb, don't ever report again. You are way too biased for the internet. Check out all the dumb ass shit California spends its money on because each party just won't give up anything anywhere before they let prisoners out and quit hiring cops,firemen, etc. etc.

I know my money is well spent by a "sloth-like" government of a bureaucracy...LOL, but sea otter funds need to go, seriously, along with environmentalists blocking building dams and etc. other progress for the state because of some freaking slug in the mud. Building dams would create JOBS!
*Gasp*

Its BOTH parties being absolute morons. 1 man dosent make every decision, he runs out to the mound to talk to the pitcher.

[ZBlacktt]

How about they let parents decide what their kids can and cannot have? I mean it's free to tax payers and it's the parents responsibility anyway. Even if some are better than others. You let the government take your right to decide things. It's hard to ever get that freedom of choice back. Just saying....

[Rtrace]

Originally Posted by bubarub your statement of, "Rather than focus on these very real problems, Governor Schwarzenegger has recklessly decided to pursue wasteful, misguided, and pointless litigation." is so dumb, don't ever report again. You are way too biased for the internet. Check out all the dumb ass shit California spends its money on because each party just won't give up anything anywhere before they let prisoners out and quit hiring cops,firemen, etc. etc. I know my money is well spent by a "sloth-like" government of a bureaucracy...LOL, but sea otter funds need to go, seriously, along with environmentalists blocking building dams and etc. other progress for the state because of some freaking slug in the mud. Building dams would create JOBS! *Gasp* Its BOTH parties being absolute morons. 1 man dosent make every decision, he runs out to the mound to talk to the pitcher.

That statement is from the ESA (which I note I accidentally called the ESRB above), I've got much worse to say about this waste of time and money.
As for bias, since when has the news not been bias?

Originally Posted by ZBlacktt How about they let parents decide what their kids can and cannot have? I mean it's free to tax payers and it's the parents responsibility anyway. Even if some are better than others. You let the government take your right to decide things. It's hard to ever get that freedom of choice back. Just saying....

It's actually bad parenting that is the cause of this. A lot of parents don't seem to check what the game is rated and that has caused a big hassle on the video game industry. These parents end up buying their kid an M game, they then say they never saw the M. So they make the M marking huge and then they say they don't know what the M stands for. So they place huge signs in the stores to say what it means.

Then they claim it doesn't get descriptive enough so they make the ratings very very descriptive. Then the parents claim their kids bought it so the stores take up a policy of selling em to 17 and older (because it says M is for 17+...again...why a huge "18" on em if the M says 17? Just asking for trouble at this point, that's a whole new age...so a lot of kiddies gonna get wet pants and bug their parents to buy) and making sure to ask even the elderly to show their ID when buying them, just to drive the point through (I know this as my grandmother would buy me an M game when I was younger and she would get her ID...(hey, I'm sane and had parents who hugged me and did check why a game was rated M..which is why I was always trying to sneak GTA into the house to play it as often as I could). So you know all in and all this is just a lot of bad parents who don't know and then refuse to admit they don't.

Last edited by Rtrace; 05-21-2009 at 09:02 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[bubarub]

When will America learn to quit saving people from THEMSELVES and let us be FREE!?!?!

[Rtrace]

Originally Posted by bubarub When will America learn to quit saving people from THEMSELVES and let us be FREE!?!?!

Around the time the MPAA and RIAA learn that no one takes them seriously and they are the laughing stock of the world. However they are right next to Scientology and Sonic the Hedgehog..both of which haven't learned yet.

Last edited by Rtrace; 05-21-2009 at 03:57 PM.

[CyanCaze]

You know I hate Arnold Schwarzenegger, He is a miserable governor from everything I hear coming out of California. (Note: I consider my self neither republican or democrat because in my opinion both are the same party and I disagree with both.

Anyway I am up to my neck of being fed up with these stupid feds who think they should control games. The ESRB is Perfectly fine first off, and parents are blaming everyone else because they want to ignore their freaking kids. I my self am 17, I have been playing M rated games since I was 13. But when a parent refuses to realize that when a game has a man with a freaking gun it's going to have blood and you are going to be able to KILL PEOPLE!

Also maybe if the government actually cared they would put COMMERCIALS ON ABOUT THE ESRB!

It's retarded that parents want to stop things like the internet and games from being mature only. But they don't realize that's like going into a bar and asking them to remove all the mature content. It's seriously freaking retarded.

I swear if they ban mature games from being built I will try my hardest to get TV turned to only child programing. Same thing for the movies. Because 99% of slightly older people only watch tv or movies so we will get them where it hurts, take away the stuff they like to do.

[Rtrace]

Originally Posted by CyanCaze You know I hate Arnold Schwarzenegger, He is a miserable governor from everything I hear coming out of California. (Note: I consider my self neither republican or democrat because in my opinion both are the same party and I disagree with both. Anyway I am up to my neck of being fed up with these stupid feds who think they should control games. The ESRB is Perfectly fine first off, and parents are blaming everyone else because they want to ignore their freaking kids. I my self am 17, I have been playing M rated games since I was 13. But when a parent refuses to realize that when a game has a man with a freaking gun it's going to have blood and you are going to be able to KILL PEOPLE! Also maybe if the government actually cared they would put COMMERCIALS ON ABOUT THE ESRB! It's retarded that parents want to stop things like the internet and games from being mature only. But they don't realize that's like going into a bar and asking them to remove all the mature content. It's seriously freaking retarded. I swear if they ban mature games from being built I will try my hardest to get TV turned to only child programing. Same thing for the movies. Because 99% of slightly older people only watch tv or movies so we will get them where it hurts, take away the stuff they like to do.

Too late, they already tried to ruin TV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_aspects_of_television#Alleged_dangers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_aspects_of_television

Pretty funny to be honest with you...bad parents will go to no ends to make themselves look even worse.

[DMagic1]

Wow, in a state where the governor was an action star in too many to count violent movies. Yeah, video game violence is much worse than movies and tv.