Vice President Joe Biden thinks that it would be perfectly okay to tax violent video games. During a recent meeting to talk about strategy for enacting the president’s proposed gun legislation, Biden said that an idea floated by Reverend Franklin Graham in late April to tax violent media might be a good idea. Participants in the session told Politico that Mr. Biden said there’s "no restriction on the ability to do that; there’s no legal reason why they couldn’t."

As part of a White House / Google Hangout event to discuss gun violence, Vice President Joe Biden said that when it comes to research on video game violence "we shouldn't be afraid of the facts." His remarks were in response to a question about the possible connection between gun violence and video games.

It should not come as any surprise that Vice-President Joe Biden's Commission on Gun Violence delivered 19 recommendations on how to deal with... gun violence, with the key word being "gun." Despite much ado about a meeting late last week with video game industry executives, trade groups, and five researchers, Biden didn't seem all that interested in taking on the industry but did tell those gathered at the meeting that the video game industry needed to improve its image with the general public.

On this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about Anonymous putting forth a DDoS free speech petition to the White House, various violent video game buyback programs (Southington CT. and Melrose, MA.), the video game industry meeting with Vice-President Joe Biden's Gun Violence Commission last week, and a whole lot more. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 36 (1 hour, 7 minutes) 61.5 MB.

Update: Polygon is reporting that the meeting between the ESA President Michael Gallagher and Joe Biden's task for on gun violence also reportedly included executives from many major publishers, researchers, and the nation's biggest video game retailer.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Anti-Censorship and Social Issues Committee Chairman Daniel Greenberg has written a letter to Vice-President Joe Biden calling for more studies and offering the organization's assistance and expertise as the Vice-President's task force on gun violence meets with various groups about solutions to the problem on mass shootings in America.

In addition to asking the gaming community to voice its collective opinion on discussions on video games taking place in Washington this week, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has written a letter to Vice-President Joe Biden, who is heading up a task force to look at ways to deal with gun violence in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting that happened in mid-December.

Reuters is reporting that the National Rifle Association, victims of gun violence, gun safety groups, gun owners, and unnamed representatives from the film and video game industries will meet with Vice-President Joe Biden's task force set up to come up with solutions and answers in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut that resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults.

The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) has sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden offering its input on the effort he is leading to develop policy recommendations to address the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy that resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults.

Slate has put together a series of videos that show the past and upcoming presidential political debates as a series of fights similar to Mortal Kombat called "Political Kombat '12."

Speaking to TorrentFreak, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom alleges that Vice President Joe Biden ordered the Megaupload shutdown at the behest of former Connecticut Senator (D) and current Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President Chris Dodd. He claims that he has information from a "reliable source" that the Megaupload case and the subsequent takedown of the file storage site was a "gift to Hollywood."

The Obama administration unveiled a government-wide intellectual property strategy to crack down on piracy and the sale counterfeit goods today in Washington. The plan calls for adding more than 50 FBI agents by the end of the year that will be dedicated to tackling the "problem of intellectual property infringement." Vice-President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Federal Drugs Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg attended the meeting. The plan also calls for the U.S. government to target web sites in other countries - we assume - through international cooperation.

Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel said that her office will review current efforts to curb intellectual property infringement of U.S. goods abroad, particularly in China which is a major source of counterfeit goods. According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report published last year, 79 percent of fake goods seized by officials emanated from.

The Copyright Alliance has penned a letter to President Obama and Vice President Biden asking the Administration to “pursue policies of the rights of artists.”

The dispatch has been posted to the group’s website and is presented as a call to action, allowing artists and creators to sign the letter. At the time of this post, over 7,700 copies of the letter had been personalized.

The letter notes the following about those who affixed their signatures:

We enrich our culture with a wide range of creative expression, including music, film, software, video games, writing, photography, graphics, and other visual arts.

An appeal at the end of the communication implores Obama and Biden to:

Please pursue policies supportive of the rights of artists and the encouragement of our creative efforts. Without the proper respect for our rights and works today, it will become even more difficult for us to create in the future.

The campaign was drafted in response to The President naming Victoria Espinel as Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, a move the Alliance called “a strong sign,” and one they will be “watching with optimism.”  The Alliance intends to deliver the letter this fall.

Clearly, Vice-President Joe Biden does not read GamePolitics.

If he did, he would have already known that President & Mrs. Obama got their daughters Malia and Sasha a Holy Grail Wii for Christmas.

From the Los Angeles Times:

One White House official recalls the vice president fretting over what to get Obama for his 48th birthday earlier this month. Biden wanted to go with a Nintendo Wii. Told that Obama's daughters already have one, a disappointed Biden said, "You're kidding." Instead, he went with a golf range-finder to help the president judge distances to the hole.

Via: Kotaku

Where do the leading presidential candidates stand on video game issues?

Ben Silverman of Yahoo! Games summarizes the positions of the top three candidates from both parties. Included in the recap is Democrat John Edwards, who announced yesterday that he is dropping out.

Of the remaining candidates, Silverman writes:
 

Compared to his more conservative opponents, [John] McCain is a viable option for Republican gamers, although his ties to [frequent game critic Sen. Joe] Lieberman are worth noting.

Obscenity laws? Societal cesspools? Unless you're wracked with gamer guilt, [Mitt] Romney is one hard sell.

[Mike Huckabee is] no Mitt Romney. That's gotta count for something.

Despite her good intentions, Hillary's scary track record might be enough to dissuade gamers from putting another Clinton in office.

[Barack] Obama is more skeptical of how violent games affect behavior than his rivals, and in turn seems less inclined to legislate right off the bat. That should ring true with gamers.