September 21, 2007
With the video game event of the year - the Halo 3 launch - just days away, game-hatin' attorney Jack Thompson is apparently seeking to re-create one of his greatest non-triumphs.Although he failed miserably with a similar bid against Rockstar's Bully in 2006, Thompson hopes to have a Florida court declare Halo 3 a public nuisance. He promised as much late last year (see: Jack Thompson Vows More Public Nuisance Suits Against Games in 2007).
No surprise, really, that Halo 3 is in the media-hungry attorney's crosshairs. Thompson seems to prefer rattling his saber when high-profile game releases are involved. In his latest attention grab Thompson has released the text of what appears to be a court filing in the 11th Circuit, the same jurisdiction in which he failed embarrassingly during last year's Bully case.
Once again, Thompson is basing his claim on a Florida statute which defines public nuisances as that which:
...tend[s] to annoy the community, injure the health of the citizens in general, or corrupt the public morals
To get an idea of what the public nuisance law was really designed for, the types of places named in the statute include:
...any house or place of prostitution, assignation, lewdness or place or building where games of chance [i.e., gambling] are engaged in violation of law or any place where any law of the state is violated, shall be deemed guilty of maintaining a nuisance...
GP: Not a video game retailer in the bunch.
As with Bully, Thompson clearly hopes the court will grant him a hearing. Although after last year's well-publicized Bully performance, which earned Thompson a Bar complaint from presiding Judge Ronald Friedman, that seems unlikely.
More troubling by far are the long term implications of this action. Thompson apparently feels emboldened to invoke Florida's public nuisance law against any video game he desires to target. That is the essence of censorship and the video game industry cannot allow it to continue on any number of grounds - legal, moral or creative.
The full text of Thompson's complaint is here (MS Word format)...
Comments
Congratulations, Jack. Your pathetic, irrelevant flailings are a great source of humor to us all.
Knowing the Halo franchise's community, Jack is in for a whole world of hurt by attempting to mess with such a high profile release.
Think they're bad on Xbox Live? Wait until they get news of this... It might get rowdy.
don't bother, he'll do it anyway.
Thompson should not be allowed to waste the courts time when there are more serious issues at hand. Try and do some *real* good with what little time you have left with your life, Jack.
11. The proof as to the causal nexus between violence simulation video games and real-world violence is legion, but one of the more notable proofs is found in the August 2005 Report of the American Psychological Association that establishes the direct causal link between violent teenaged video game play and teenagers’ aggression. The recent U. S. Supreme Court case of Roper v. Simmons, which struck down the juvenile death penalty, cites the brain scan studies similar to those coming out of Harvard, Indiana, and Michigan State Universities that prove that these violent games are processed in a different part of the brain in adolescents and teens than in adults, and it is the sector of the brain that leads of teen violence copycatting these violent games like Halo 3.
So far there has been no causal link, no evidence, no Legal Cases that can support any of this, yes there is evidence of a heightened sense of aggression after playing a violent game, but that's it. No basis for this claim what so ever.
Also, there's something hilarious and ambiguously wrong about the phrase "rattling his saber".
Now he's not only claiming that Lee Malvo trained in sniping on Halo, but that the Army uses it to train snipers? IIRC, Halo doesn't even simulate gravity on sniping weapons. The base rule is pull the trigger when it's in your crosshoirs, which hardly seems to qualify as training. (point 9)
"Video game" should be hyphenated in point 11.
Point 12: This is one of the sadder attempts at spin I've seen. Recognizing something may not be good for kids isn't the same thing as community harm and recognizing parents will throw a fit isn't the same thing as copping to any sort of harm. Do we ban roller coasters because you must be a certain height to ride? Do we take the fact that libraries are typically separated into adults' and kids' books as a sign the adult books are dangerous and should be banned?
Point 14: I Best Buy is in violation of an out-of-court settlement (and I think he's mischaracterizing this), the thing to do would be to bring a civil suit specifically against them, not a public nuisance suit to ban a game. This is beyond the points that were amde earlier abotu the FTC considering cred cards valid for age verification as minors can't get them without parent/guardian approval. If they don't want Junior looking at porn and Halo, they can just not sign the form.
Point 15: This is the crux of his claim that Halo 3 itself, rather than Best Buy is a public nuisance, yet he backs it up only with a vague reference to news reports. Aren't you supposed to cite evidence?
Point 16: Again, what do false claims have to do with a nuisance suit? This sounds more like an issue for the FTC than the local courts.
Point 17: Prohibiting Microsoft from selling indirectly to anyone under 17 amounts to prohibiting them from selling it at all. Since hasn't named mail-order outlets beyond Best Buy in the case, presumably it would be Microsoft's job to make sure Amazon didn't sell to some kid in Pennsacola.
Overall: note the lack of any specific claims about Halo 3 or explanations why it falls under the public nuisance statute beyond vague claims that it's violent. He does cite (misleadingly) some studies on the matter, but does nothing to demonstrate these studies would apply to Halo 3. The closest he comes is citing a news story that the Beltway Sniper played Halo.
If he's lucky, the court will reject this at the first hearing, minimizing the damages Microsoft can counter-sure for.
Let's not forget about the Florida residents that pre-ordered Halo 3.
Better work fast, Jacko! Use those lightning-quick massacre chaser reflexes!
-Jack Thompson Runs Out of Targets
-Jack Thompson: Out of ammunition
-Jack Thompson, Still Crazy
To JT, when he appears:
I can't believe you have dropped so low that you will attack one of the most popular franchises that has had no negative light in the media. Just leave the public eye immediately or accept your Bar complaints and become an unemployed ex-lawyer.
Sincerely,
J-Guy
Oh, thats not a statement that only gamers would do something like that. If the Dolphins (god forbid) make it to the Superbowl, and Jackie-boy here decides to get it banned because its a "public nuisance", I could see some chair jockeys getting up and finding where he lives. Then again, wouldn't be hard...the guy posts his personal info every 3-4 comments he makes.
Come on...Halo 3? Its not even that violent of a game! And who has ever said "Halo made me do it"? Go back to finding ways to keep your sanity, as well as your lawyer status, under control...because I know one is almost gone, and the other is sure to follow.
That said, I hope the judge allows the hearing to go through, so that he can have his say, and Microsoft can have their say and absolutely crush him. Then the Bar can look at this and see how incompetent he is and dismiss him from the Bar, therefore, ending his career.
Oh, and don't bother looking north of the border for a new job, we won't take you
"2)It’s so much more fantasy than realism, that you’d have to be mentally undevelloped/ill to be influenced by it."
... which would explain JT's problem with HALO 3.
@Seany-boy:
"Jack hasn’t written because good Christians are in bed by 10:30pm EST."
... that's just it, he's not a good Christian. (or human being, or lawyer, or sore loser.)
@Mnementh2230:
And even if it did, I was hoping Jack could tell me where I can acquire a real life version of the Spartan Laser? ... Yeah, I didn't think so.
'since you're already choking on a whole turkey, might as well go ahead and try to down a great whale too'.
...Hey, that means Jack finally set a precedent!
Now there is something to 'HOOAH!' about!
Here it is slooooowllllly, Jack:
Teen-age-ers do not have full-ly de-vel-oped pre-front-al cor-tex-es. Or at least, they use that area of the brain for a lot of thinking and so it isn't yet specialized sufficiently to perform the same level of empathy and impulse The problem isn't that kids are being influenced more by what they take in--it's that other people's feelings and health factor less into some teens' decision-making than it should for a mentally normal adult.
Of course, people with mental disorders have weird results depending on disorder, but videogames sparking that area of the brain in normal teenagers means nothing because it is a part of the brain they rely upon more heavily than adults, and in more (nearly all) questions of choice. So if it's sparking, all that means is the teens are thinking about what they're doing, and God forbid we should encourage that.
"John Muhammad, knew the efficacy of the first Halo video game in this regard, [u][b]because the Army in which he served used this same murder simulator to train snipers to kill.[/b][/u] "
Or is just throwing random, made up BS ok right before you state "Under penalty of perjury, I declare the foregoing facts are true, correct, and complete, so help me God, this September 21, 2007."
He's royally ****ed is what he is.
And i'll say it again: this won't get to hearing. What's Thompson's definition of 'foreign'? Because that's what he's calling both Best Buy and Microsoft in that document. Last i checked, those were both American companies.
If only.. Although it does sound more ABC than FOX.
Causing undue stress upon others and encouraging people that disagree with him to commit suicide ("Go by a suicide game and get real good at it") is definitely detrimental to society.
Nice spoof, but it should be "lively-hood", which is to say a profession. Good stuff otherwise! :)
Thats a picture to go on your wall.
This is just him trying to make a big name for himself in the wake of some failures against videogames.
You'd think I wouldn't be surprised, but seriously...Halo 3?
(I have nothing to say on the actual lawsuit because anything I want to say has either already been said or will be said by other commenters.)
Oo, someone's in trouble!
Andrew Eisen
So I think he could really be on to something with this public nuisance thing!
What’s he lying about?
-The conclusions of the 2005 APA resolution
-The use of brain scan studies in Roper vs. Simmons
-The conclusions of college studies (most of which aren’t even brain scan studies as he claims)
-The reasons behind the ESRB (he claims its existence is an industry acknowledgement of harm)
Andrew Eisen
What were you thinking jack? days before the release, the third itteration of the game, fantasy violence where your killing aliens not people. Theres no way you can win this one.
Knowing jack he probably hopes to cry 'conspiracy!' when he inevitably fails, but halo 3 has at least enough general regonition for the public to ignore his futile and flacid attempts at noteriety.
Next time do something more itneresting jack, try convicting the scottish parliament for war crimes because they harbor that dreadful rockstar north. That crazy enough to get you in some papers.