FC: Good news: Appeals court says videogames protected by 1A

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Justin Hall" <justin () bud com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Politech thanks; Videogames declared "speech" worthy of protection
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 10:31:21 -0700

It was just yesterday that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals declared video
games speech worthy of first amendment protections.  It's not the first time
games have had their "speech" status confirmed, but it is a significant
refutation of an April ruling by Federal Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr.,
which was covered by PoliTech: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03463.html.

The timing of the Appeals court decision is important due to a new batch of
State laws limiting specific aspects of videogame content.  Washington State
House Bill 1009 outlaws the sale or rental of videogames depicting violence
against law enforcement officers to under-17 minors.  So kids there aren't
supposed to play cops and robbers with modern toys.  And this is only one
among many similar bills emerging in Statehouses.

There is already a ratings system in place for videogames, the ESRB, charged
with limiting access to inappropriately violent titles.  It's an attempt by
the games industry to police itself as the movie industry does.  There may
be sporadic problems with ratings assignment or enforcement, but that does
not make it appropriate for legislators to ban specific speech for
consumption by specific audiences.  Parents should be able to use videogame
ratings to decide which products are appropriate for their child.

Videogames are still developing as a medium.  Hopefully these recent court
decisions will uphold the rights of videogame developers to express
themselves, through games; games that are to be played by adults as well as
children.  Yes the videogame industry needs to develop more non-violent
means of expressing action.  But if we attempt to legislate against games to
protect children, we will limit the potential of videogames to speak to all
people.

We're tracking the various cases on Game Girl Advance:
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/

And the Program Director for the IGDA (International Game Developers'
Association) Jason Della Rocca has a weblog where he's sharing some solid
sober opinions with useful links: http://www.igda.org/blogs/realitypanic/

Thank you Declan,

Justin Hall

http://www.links.net/




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