March 22, 2007
Last week GamePolitics broke the news that troubled game publisher Take Two Interactive had filed suit against anti-game activist Jack Thompson in Federal District Court in Florida.Late yesterday, Thompson sent out e-mails containing a copy of his response to Take Two's suit as well as a counter claim which, among other things, alleges the Grand Theft Auto publisher is at the center of a vast conspiracy to deprive Thompson of his civil rights.
Referring to Take Two in the court filing as "thuggish pornographers," Thompson charges that the company violated federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) statutes, commonly used to prosecute organized crime syndicates.
Among Thompson's claims:
Take-Two has, since July 2005, been at the center of an effort to violate Thompson’s civil and constitutional rights... In addition to... extortion (intimidation) of Thompson... Take-Two has committed other predicate RICO acts, including but not limited to fraud, distribution of obscene and/or sexual material harmful to minors...
Additionally... Take-Two, through its Blank Rome lawyers, sought in Alabama to tamper with a witness in a pending criminal case, according to that witness’ lawyer.
Neither the witness nor the lawyer are named in Thompson's filing. The Alabama reference would be to the Strickland vs. Sony case in which an 18-year-old GTA player killed two police officers and a police dispatcher. Thompson represents the families of the victims in a $600 million lawsuit against Take Two, Rockstar, Sony, Wal-Mart and GameStop. The judge in that case, however, revoked Thompson's pro hac vice (visiting) admission to the Alabama Bar in November, 2005.
Later in the 37-page filing, Thompson adds perjury and obstruction of justice to his allegations against Take Two. He claims that Take Two has "collaborated and conspired with third parties to commit these racketeering activities." As alleged by Thompson, these "third parties" include many influential video game websites and publications, including this one as well as Kotaku, Joystiq, GameSpot, IGN, Penny Arcade, EGM, Game Informer and Spong.
Thompson also claims that game industry groups including the ESA and ESRB are involved as well as consumer group the Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA). The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
GameSpot has more. Read Thompson's filing here (37-page pdf).
Comments
Majestic_12_x wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories
See anything else you want to add to your lawsuit? Don't forget that the Knights Templar and the Freemasons are really the ones behind everything. You might want to consider penciling them in as co-defendants along with Take-Two.
Jack Thompson wrote:
So, what illegal drugs are you taking this morning?
Majestic_12_x wrote:
Cocoa Puffs, I'm out of the wheaties that come with dried strawberries. What kind of hurtful stereotypes are you promoting this morning? (ie: gamers are druggies, scottish people drinking single malt whiskey, etc.)
All I remember was seeing Jimmy kissing a boy... I don't remember any sex.
It is so funny watching him spit out the same garbage every suit he files.
JT: Dennis of Gamepolitics.com, are you part of a vast global conspiracy to destroy me?
Dennis: No.
JT: B-b-but! GTA!
The 9/11 conspiracy theorists look like perfectly sane and rational people compared to this.
He IS a crazy ultra-religious nut as it is.
But really, I can see why he feels there's a big conspiracy against him. Everyone hates him and wants him put in a place where he can't harm society again.
But that's not really a secret conspiracy, seeing as people OPENLY want him removed thanks to all the bullsh#t lies, harassment, threats and stereotypist attacks he's let out against everyone not exactly like him ever since he started his pathetic career.
To name good people in this suit like GamePolitics, the ECA and Penny Arcade is just... Reprehensible doesn't come close! It just shows the total depth of hatred this man has. To see it is just mind-boggling. Seriously, how can one man be so full of hate? Where does it all come from? To hear him, you'd think us gamers and the game developers, publishers and advocacy groups are the most evil people in the world. What have we ever done to deserve this?
I once talked to my father, who also lives in FL BTW and is a religous man himself, about him. And he said that this is someone who's clearly lost his way, and that he's going to pay for it sooner or later whether he realizes it or not. We both agreed that he is going to lose his entire family over this, and that he will realize too late that he threw it all away over this ultimately worthless "crusade." Then again, he may never.
A couple weeks ago I saw a documentary on Jim Jones with his son being one of the people he interviewed. Basically, his son said that he was repulsed and embarassed by his behavior and felt no sadness or sympathy for him when he died. That feeling was saved instead for the hundreds of people he had lied to and manipulated. I have to wonder if Thompson's own son harbors similar feelings? At least Thompson won't have as many people around him to drink the Kool Aid as he pursues his own self-destructive path.
Oh dear God, the insane cat is finally out of the bag.....
You know what your problem is Jack? You think the First Amendment applies ONLY to you. You feel you have a right to 'annoy people' and that's a recorded statement, but fail to understand that people can do things to wind you up without any backing at all.
Do you honestly imagine an organised crime group sending you 'The Book of Mormon' or tubes of lubricant on your door, are you so delusional that you think that is how organised crime works? You've been watching too much of the Godfather, methinks, what next, your cats head in the bed next to you??
No Jack, what you have there is 37 pages of hyperbole, assumption and downright lies, no evidence and a career heading straight down the pan.
You are the weakest link. Goodbye.
You should sue him! :P
You forgot gays and Pixilanties. :) Your comment made me crack up.
This makes me recall a certain Rockwell song...
"I always feel like somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Tell me it can't be"
If accusing every video game organization under of sun of plotting against him doesn't work, he can always claim his wife is going in for an operation again.
As a member of the ECA, I would gladly donate $$ specifiaclly for some kind of legal fund to use this case to shut this zealot down for good.
This one is even more obivious.
"Thompson refers to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as a "violence and sex simulation game" that perpetuates racial stereotypes, asking, "What else would one expect of Scottish sociopaths sipping their single malt Glenlivet in between brainstorming software programming sessions?"
Irony much?
Though I must say, the fallout from this little misadventure of his should be... most interesting.
Makes a quite easy case for Take Two to win.
You wish, Thompson.
#Don't mean they're not after you...
JT, your career is really on the line with this one and you fill your case with lies and paranoid delusions. One thing is true though, we are bored of you and your agenda and we want you to fail and be barred. Please oblige us and continue on in the same vein. Thankyou.
I could only make it as far as page 10. There's only so much crazy I can take before noon. Maybe after lunch I'll be able to stomach a bit more.
Just for my own clarification, the FTC did not find any "fraud and deception" on Take-Two's part correct? That's the way I remember it going, though I could be mistaken.
What's next, Thompson for President? Will he be the crazy ultra-religious one from Escape from L.A.?
It seems our rivaly with Thompson is hitting a peak point......I think it's possable this man knows hes loosing and he's not going down without a fight.
I know some people predicted the other day that Thompson would file a counter suit......but this ime he's throwing in the whole card deck.
His time is coming to an end....and I think he might know it...and this is his way of throwing a tantrum.
That or this man is really senile to flat out lie on a mass scale like ths.
Not only that, it gave Take-Two's suit against him even more merit and gave everyone else more ammunition to use against him.
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I compared Take-Two's suit against Thompson to the WWE's suit against the PTC years ago, and this countersuit just adds to the similiarity(the PTC countersued WWE, claiming the First Amendment, and the judge tossed out the PTC's countersuit).
"Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, this...is Chewbaka. Chewbaka is a Wookie from the planet Enduron. But Chewbaka lives with a bunch of Ewoks on the planet Endor. Why would an 8' tall Wookie live with a bunch of Ewoks on a different planet? Does that make sense?
That does not make sense. Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, does it make sense that Chewbaka would live on Endor?
It does not make sense!
This case does not make sense!
How can my client be guilty if Chewbaka is livin on Endor with a bunch of Eewoks? It does not make sense! If Chewbaka lives on Endor you must acquit! Thank you."
- if you're not a South Park fan, please ignore my senseless drivel.
@#$%er. His email adress is "amendment one". Anyone remember the crazy names he came up with back when this was all livejournal?
Hahaha... ha.
Don't throw that key away, break it off in the lock.
Nice, but for pure hypocracy:
"You know, there are sociopaths everywhere. Some of them are in government, some of them are at TakeTwo. In fact, we got a bunch of sociopaths in Edinburgh, Scotland, sittin' around in kilts sippin' their single malt whiskey spreading racial, hurtful stereotypes in this country."
(from his Wikiquote article)
He has said such crazy things before. Saying that "sociopaths in Scotland" are spreading STEREOTYPES is simply hilarious in it's hypocracy.....
"Paranoia would be an understatement. Thompson needs to locked into the mental health place and the key thrown away."
No thanks. We don't want him either.
Jacky, step away from Vice City (or whichever one had the mob, eh...).
I played the whole game and didn't find none. Just Thompson lying to justify his actions. No surprise there.
and being a gamer myself makes me want to kill him for his insanity. all he is doing is just trying to make money by blaming a series of games that have animated violence. he cannot prove the case for him and if he does i pray to everyones god that he f****** burns in h311
im guessing yahoo search