Well it just shows that Take 2 are way more human and benevolant to that Jack guy. Even though he brought me more to commit murder than manhunt or other games did he was funny. So long as he tries to sue someone else soon and gets serious jailtime ill be happy

[...] Filed under: News Word comes that Jack Thompson and Take Two have settled before going to trial in Florida. This comes after news that Thompson would sue the publisher to put a dent in sales of its upcoming games Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2. The settlement reached by both parties has stipulations, preventing Thompson from: [...]

[...] Word comes that Jack Thompson and Take Two have settled before going to trial in Florida. This comes after news that Thompson would sue the publisher to put a dent in sales of its upcoming games Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2. The settlement reached by both parties has stipulations, preventing Thompson from: [...]

[...] Word comes that Jack Thompson and Take Two have settled before going to trial in Florida. This comes after news that Thompson would sue the publisher to put a dent in sales of its upcoming games Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2. The settlement reached by both parties has stipulations, preventing Thompson from: [...]

[...] Word comes that Jack Thompson and Take Two have settled before going to trial in Florida. This comes after news that Thompson would sue the publisher to put a dent in sales of its upcoming games Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2. The settlement reached by both parties has stipulations, preventing Thompson from: [...]

I was kinda hoping that Jack Thompson would be sued into oblivion or imprisoned, but I guess this is okay too. Jack Thompson will have to find another company to bitch about.

[...] Word comes that Jack Thompson and Take Two have settled before going to trial in Florida. This comes after news that Thompson would sue the publisher to put a dent in sales of its upcoming games Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2. The settlement reached by both parties has stipulations, preventing Thompson from: [...]

I give it a week before he says they're denying his right to harass them.

well at least take two and rockstar wont have to deal with jack's crap anymore (you know for someone who says all gamers are children he sure as hell does act like one)

personally i wouldnt have dropped anything and i'd make sure he went down for his crap but at least its taken care of..

ok im gonna go watch the jt video now

Boy, it didn't take Jackie Boy long. His new target? Counter-Strike. Who he thinks is the publisher?

Microsoft.

I'm with Game/Life on this one. Jack, please sue Microsoft.

Hahaha. Oh, wait, it's April the 19th.

Im happy for JT that he won't go to jail. He is not the devil. He just thinks he is doing the right thing. Its a win-win situation between JT and Rockstar. Now we can get on to expecting the greatest game in the world : GTA IV.

This definatley throws my optimistic outlook for T2 new management into question.

Oh, ok, so this is what he meant when he said he was going to "destroy" Take Two.

"...nor is he prevented from acting as counsel in lawsuits brought against Take Two by other parties."

This part seems like a loophole he can exploit. Can't he just convince someone else to bring the lawsuits and then he can attack T2 as counsel to the suing party? Finding some like-minded religious imperialist crusader shouldn't be hard. We haven't seen the last of him from a legal standpoint much less from a critical standpoint. T2 might have lost an opportunity to put this guy behind bars for awhile, while only achieving modest gains.

@ Phantom

He can try all he likes. He's still deprived of his favorite target. With GTA he could easily use its lurid depictions of violence and mayhem and point to it as a shorthand representation of violence in all video games. Take 2 and Rockstar would also be hard-pressed to defend their games as "artistic expression" in the face of such criticism (though the silence of the earlier management certainly didn't help either and in fact made it all the more easier for JT).

As much as he may want to use Counterstrike now, he'll have an even harder time trying to make as convincing an argument with it, as its depiction of violence is far less sensationalistic. Also, Sierra/Vivendi/Valve will probably be a lot more proactive and vocal in countering than Rockstand and Take 2 were.

As for soliciting his clients, I'm sure most of the VT students are aware of him. Also Gov. Kaine said in reference to people like JT that they'd be advised to take whatever little crusades they happen to be on for their personal gain elsewhere. And hopefully if he even dares try to approach the victims' families, they'll take that advice to heart and tell JT to take his class-action lawsuits and shove them up his ass.

The fact that major news outlets haven taken him less seriously in the wake of this and that he didn't appear nearly as much as he did when Columbine happened is a clear indication his credibility is slipping. And this latest announcement has severely crippled his crusade as well. The dismissal of the Cody Posey case and his eventual (I hope) disbarment will be the final nails in his coffin.

@Awol

No, it's T2's lawyers that filed the court contempt so they are free to drop it if they wish so. However the judge in the Bully case filed a bar complaint toward Jack Thompson. These are two different but I guess you could say related things.

Who wants to bet that Jacky Boy will throw out some law suit against the companies that have T2 and Rockstar's games on them? Get to the company without getting to the company, more or less.

Out of curiousity, is Thompson still being disciplined by the Florida bar?

--TR

Di anyone see the interview between Thompson and Chris Matthews of Hardball? Thompson repeatedly stated that he "knew" that Hui had CS on his computer and that his roommate was lying about Hui's computer usage. Thompson also stated that there is no way that an average human being can fire a round into someone else without increasing their heartrate, unless they play video games.

Who is he to know how fast anyone's heart is beating? Was he following Hui with a freaking stethoscope? Truth is, motive and return fire would more than likely account for an increase in heartrate, not the act of killing others with impunity. The problem lies in the act of firing a gun. It's simply point and pull trigger. That's what allowed people to increase efficieny over previous weapons. Heartrate increase has nothing to do with the mind and motive of a depraved individual who would commite these type of crimes.

I really can't see him actually following this settlement. He's violated Judge's orders in the past when it suits his agenda.

I wonder if there's any penalties attached to violating the settlement? I haven't read through all the legalese yet.

This may be jumping the gun, but from what I can see from this settlement...

The game industry won. That's right Jack, we won. There's no shame in losing at something, alright? Take it like a man.

He will never live up to the agreement. Jack Thompson is above the law, always remember that! And now that he has to show restraint against one of his favorite targets, he'll either brake the agreement or pop a gasket! And let's not forget... There is a very good chance he'll be disbarred anyway.

Bleh the Legalese link isn't working.

Double post was just my adobe... bleh

I'm in the camp that views this as not only a great settlement on T2's part, but a great victory over Laddy Jack and his bag of ad terrorem litigation tactics. First and foremost, this is the remedy T2 wanted: to enjoin Jack's ability to bring direct suits against the company in the name of himself, a State (Florida), or any other entity that would impinge on the release of GTA IV, Manhunt 2, etc. It also (theoretically) stops the flood of vitriolic letters--sorry, "Press Releases"--going directly to Take-Two management (I guess with Paul Eibeler out of the picture, Jack's just not in the mood anymore). The whole contempt issue is minor to T2 (honestly, I sincerely doubt Laddy Jack was ever in much danger of going to jail--the far likelier outcome is that he'd have to pay a fine and probably get yet another notch on his ethics record), but nonetheless important to JT (because, after all, he COULD have gone to jail, had to pay a hefty fine, and/or take a hit to his record that would've provided great fodder for the still-in-process Bar cases against him). Plus, in the event of Take Two's (likely) victory against him at trial, T2 could ding him for both costs and attorney's fees--and as you can imagine, that ain't cheap.

My concern is this: Jack might, at some point later down the line, break this contract (which, after all, is what a settlement agreement really is), continue his verbal and written assaults on T2's ability to release its products, and then claim that this contract is void for public policy, as it impinges on his personal First Amendment rights and his right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. He tried a similar tactic in one of his many cases against Norm Kent, Beasley Broadcasting, and the rest of the radio folk with whom he's constantly sparred. There was some settlement agreement in place that said something to the effect of Jack cannot complain to law enforcement about these guys' on-air shenanigans (I can't remember off the top of my head; I'll look it up later). In one of his more recent suits, he claimed that this agreement was void as against public policy because he couldn't engage in a citizens' duty of reporting crimes (or some other BS).

That being said, I think Jack realizes that he's got a couple of bigger fish to fry (or rather, that he's about to BE fried by much bigger fish): obviously, he's got two rather nasty Bar cases for which he needs to button down (as can be seen from the Florida Supreme Court's docket in Case No. SC07-80), and also, he and his lil' team are facing a massive dismissal hearing in the Posey case here in Albuquerque in June. In sum, great day for T2, not so much for Laddy Jack (especially after Chris Matthews basically handed Jack his *ss, much in the same way as ABC's guy did in that little Nightline piece a while back).

Of course, it also explains why he shifted to blaming CounterStrike, instead of GTA, over the recent shooting.

nightwng2000
NW2K Software

So does this mean David just fell to his knees begging Goliath not to hurt him?

I don't think we've seen the last of Jack ragging on Take Two. Even if it's now going to get him jailed for him to do so, he's on a mission from God, so he'll just keep going and going and going, and besides, when has the LAW ever stopped Jack, hmm? Remember, he thinks he's above the law.

For those of you who would have taken JT to court, have fun for the next 3 to 6 months fighting him. THat is what would have happened and T2 has better things to do.

I like the outcome, because it proves that JT was guilty.

There are two reasons that people settle disputes out of court. One, they know that no matter how innocent they are they cannot afford the costs of battling it in court so they cut there losses and settle. Two, they know they are guilty and know that they can avoid a much larger penalty by settling out of court.

JT falls under number two. He was guilty and knew that if he went to court, he would have to pay large amounts of money to T2 and he could possibly go to jail. So he decided to voluntarily shut up for the time being. So I am glad, because now he cannot go and sue T2 whenever he wants, but if in the off chance that someone hires hm for a lawsuit against T2 he can accept. So he will never be in another lawsuit against T2.

Sadly, this does nothing for the future. It says he can still criticize content. That means we'll hear about his usual "for the children" BS that he puts on as always and keep trying to get on the news about how these games are bad for children and such.
He can also still persuade states to waste their funding on trying to pass video game legislation. He can still do everything he's been doing the past few years w/o worry.
This is a huge disappointment. I'd rather see him pay for some of the money he's convinced other states to pay for.

JC: Read the settlement again. He can criticize content, not who the games are sold to as that would imply wrong-doing. This effectively removes his position of "for the children" unless he wants to go back to court. It will just mean his actual position of hating games no matter who plays them is more obvious and what we have seen every time there is a school shooting.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hardball/clip-jack-thompson-gets-hardballed-253...

That is Jacks position. It is nice to see people taking him to task over it too though and pointing out the inaccuracies, assumptions and the leaps in logic.

Poor Jack. The man who declared, "I'm out to shut down Rockstar!"

So much for that.

But I wonder how he's doing with the Florida Bar?

Honestly guys, what are the odds that Jack could have gone to jail over this if it continued? Not very good. And even if they did, it would only be shortly, and as soon as he gets out he'll say it was a setup and continue crusading against T2. Now, he at least can't use lawsuits to try that Bully BS again. This settlement was one of the best ways this could have ended. Neither side needed a messy court battle.

While it seems like a reasonable outcome, I really don't see John Bruce as being capable of living up to his word. Evein if it's an agreement with the court.

And while the Contempt of Court charges have been dropped, he is still facing the Bar complaints. So this is not the end of the matter.

nightwng2000
NW2K Software

if i were TakeTwo, i'd not have settled.

it'd have been worth it just to have Thompson brought up on those contempt charges.

Or more to the saying T2 tucked their tails between their legs instead of going for the jugular like they should have done to begin with.boring.

Aww.... how anticlimactic.

I'm sure he'll still find ways to entertain us/ignore these agreements.

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i see you get spam here. good article. jack sucks.

On a related note, how come Gamepolitics haven't sued Mr. Thompson for libel against them? Even if he has retracted his statement, the offense still stands as a criminal violation.

I nominate Jack Thompson for the biggest douche in the universe award.

Unreal... The man is a glutton for punishment.

Frankly, I was expecting to happen like this. It was absolutely normal that they would end up to compromise like this. Some days ago when I was having some work with some frigidaire parts I was talking with some people around there and when I told them that this would happen, no one believe me. Oh well, now it has become true!