Following an appeal by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the California violent video games law, which fines retailers up to $1000 for selling violent games to minors. State officials have compared violent games to porn and argued that the government needs to restrict the sale of such products to children.
Eight other states have passed similar laws, but they've all failed to take effect because of First Amendment rights. The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) is confident that the California law will eventually meet the same fate. "While we would have preferred that the court decline review, we are confident that ultimately the high court will conclude that the lower court correctly analyzed the law and the law violates the First Amendment," said an EMA spokesperson.
Michael Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association added, “Courts throughout the country have ruled consistently that content-based regulation of computer and video games is unconstitutional. Research shows that the public agrees, video games should be provided the same protections as books, movies and music. As the Court recognized last week in the US v. Stevens case, the First Amendment protects all speech other than just a few ‘historic and traditional categories’ that are ‘well-defined and narrowly limited.’ We are hopeful that the Court will reject California’s invitation to break from these settled principles by treating depictions of violence, especially those in creative works, as unprotected by the First Amendment."
He continued, "A poll recently conducted by KRC Research found that 78 percent believe video games should be afforded First Amendment protection. We look forward to presenting our arguments in the Supreme Court of the United States and vigorously defending the works of our industry’s creators, storytellers and innovators.”
It's expected that the court will hear the arguments this fall. In the meantime, the ESA and member companies like publisher Electronic Arts would encourage gamers to take a stand. "This is another sign that gamers need to wake up and get organized to protect their rights. Censorship and content restrictions are a very real threat to videogames. Any gamer who has not registered with the ESA’s VideoGame Voter Network, loses the right to complain when government starts taking games off the market," Jeff Brown, EA director of corporate communications, said in an e-mail to IndustryGamers.
1 Comments
April 27, 2010
Gamers need to foment a reasoned and direct assult on political manipulations of their industry. The alternative would be to end up being 'out-legislated' as in Australia. The purpose of such political legislation has little to do with protecting values, and more to do with garnering votes, and guarnteeing the job security of the deadbeat politico. The politicians, who gamers are up against, have psychopathology and dishonesty on their side. Their arrogance, is only exceeded by their ignorance of the art of gaming---as well as most other significant issues of morality and values.