Federal Court Hears Video Game Violence Appeal
from the the-topic-that-never-goes-away dept
An appeals court is listening to representatives of the video game industry argue that they have just as much a right to free speech as the movie and music industries - and that it's illegal to ban the sale of video games. This is in response to legislation in St. Louis county banning the sale of violent video games. As the industry points out, there's already a ratings system, and completely banning the sale of violent video games goes too far. The folks arguing for the ban trot out the same old arguments (which have never been proven) that violent video games make kids more violent themselves. The judge, though, sounds skeptical of the claim, as he asked the lawyer how video games were any different than playing games like "cops and robbers". He even is quoted as saying, "I bet I killed 50 people a week playing Army as a kid."Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team