PlayStation Driver Turns Killer

from the ban-racing-games! dept

For all the people out there who want to ban first-person shooter video games because they think it makes children shoot up schools, here's another target: it's time to ban racing games. I'm sure some folks are going to start suggesting that after hearing that a teenager killed a woman after taking a car for a joyride. He had never driven before and his only experience "driving" a car had been by playing games on his PlayStation. Of course this happened in Australia where people apparently aren't quite as litigious in the US. The family of the woman who has killed has said they "forgive" the teen and hope he gets a light sentence. In the US, they'd already be suing the kid, his parents, Sony for the PlayStation, and whoever made the driving game he used.
Hide this

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


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    dem, 12 Jun 2003 @ 11:40am

    so true

    i couldnt agree with you more

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2003 @ 1:43pm

    America ..

    One-sixth the world's population, one-half the lawyers.

    C'mon, folks, those out-of-work lawyers have to do SOMETHING! Send this boy to camp? Send that boy to the Audi dealer or something.

    Quite seriously, though, the US has a society that likes to point a finger and say "YOU did that", but I think it's really a case of not pointing a finger and saying "*I* did that". It seems that Americans - as a group - don't seem to like to admit they blew it, and I'm not sure if that's because it opens them up to lawsuits or not. That's, imho, what's contributing to this litigious society. The logic's circular, but I'm not sure which chicken or egg came first.

    The isn't-my-fault problem is a larger one, and we can see it in everything from child behaviour (who brought that screaming kid to Denny's any way?) to shopping (okay, so you don't need light-bulbs; can you put them back in the light bulbs aisle?). It's just no one's fault, no one's responsibility, and it's making the common man that much more of a commoner.

    I guess all that litigation is required, so that people will have a Policy they can look up and use to dictate their everyday behaviour. Should I let that old man cross the street in front of me? Should I hold the door open, or will she sue me for discrimination? Should I refrain from running over the Handy Dart driven by the drunk, obese woman, swerving into the 45mph traffic, even if it means hitting the obscenely big-and-thirsty SUV house-boat driven by the soccer-mom who's sharing her time between driving and giving her spoiled brats time-outs for fighting over the remote control to the DVD payer?

    It's apparent that we need new policies down here, but I'm not sure which ones.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2003 @ 7:04pm

      Re: America ..

      I think it was Ghandi who said

      "When you raise youre hand a point a finger, three curl around to point back at you".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2003 @ 2:05pm

    As opposed to?

    Litigation is a way to solve the huge gray area of the law. If we don't have litigation, then cops will decide the outcome for us, and Americans will whine anyway.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jacob Gates, 3 Nov 2007 @ 9:33am

    Ghandi

    Not Entirely true... So Philisophically... Don't close your hand into a fist, when you point... just let the other's hang loose, then they point at the ground and No Karmic backlash. The United states does have too many lawwyers, it's one of the only countries, wwhere 1 in 5 citizens is a lawyer. Now that isn't true in every region of the us.. but in the Large cities.. It's prolly close to such a ratio if it isn't worse.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.