Gamer Says Sony Violated His 1st Amendment Rights By Banning Him
from the that's-not-how-it-works dept
It's amazing how badly some people misunderstand the First Amendment. It only limits the government from passing laws that limit your free expression (with certain exceptions). It has nothing to do with what a private company or individual can do. In other words, it's not a right to say whatever you want with no consequence. So, I doubt that the following lawsuit will get very far. Apparently a video gamer is suing Sony saying it violated his First Amendment rights by banning him from the PlayStation 3 game "Resistance" for something he apparently said while talking to other players (found via Digg). But, of course, as a private company and not the government, Sony has every right to ban whoever they want, for a wide variety of reasons. So, kids, remember, the First Amendment isn't a right to say whatever you want without getting kicked off of a video game system for being annoying.
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Filed Under: ban, first amendment, free speech, video game
Companies: sony
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I always assumed that once they talked to a REAL lawyer that would be the end of it. I guess I was just lucky.
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Other idiotic sayings
This smack of all those times in my life when people have tried to explain away doing REALLY stupid and/or selfish things (refusing to get the hell out of the doorway on the subway, stopping for no apparent reason in the middle of the sidewalk in downtown Chicago, putting ketchup on a hot dog) by saying "Hey, it's a free country."
To which I usually respond, "Then watch me freely shove you out of the way and laugh at the ironic joke-name I.P. Freely as I urinate on your head, all in an effort to get to work on time so that I can check out Techdirt...and also so that ketchup, a condiment that belongs on fries and that's about it, shall never touch another encased meat again".
Christ, I'm going to end up with an ulser, I know it....
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Re: Other idiotic sayings
Clearly it's only mayonnaise that goes well with fries.
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Re: Re: Other idiotic sayings
:)
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Re: Other idiotic sayings
Free speech doesn't really exist anywhere, because there are so many codicils and exceptions at this point that even the government has no problem telling you that you can't say this or that. I'm not talking about the classic 'shout fire in a crowded theatre' scenario either, just being bitter in general while also being too lazy to cite specifics.
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Re: Re: Other idiotic sayings
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Re: Re: Other idiotic sayings
They call it "disorderly conduct"
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OWENED!!!!!
AH HA AHAH AHA AHAHAHAHA AHAH AHHA AHAHAHAHA HHAHAHAHAHAHA
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The Actual Filing
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Reminds me of a song....
"
Excuse me
First amendment?
Son, the first amendment protects you from the government
Not from me
You can say whatever you want to out there
You come within reach of me
I'll exercise my right to give you a good ol' country ass whoopin'
Is what I'll do for you
"
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Re: Reminds me of a song....
But I had no idea that the words were just as bad as the music.
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Re: Re: Reminds me of a song....
You get your wife back, your job back, your dog back, your truck back, ...
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Re: Re: Re: Reminds me of a song....
You get your wife back, your job back, your dog back, your truck back, ...
Priceless...
In response to the Trace Atkins song. Assualt and Battery are covered under law and could be viewed as a hate crime.
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Re: Reminds me of a song....
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Re: Reminds me of a song....
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Gotta love it.
However, I've never had anyone threaten to sue me over it. The fact that somebody is actually suing a company over something like that made me laugh. The fact that he was given several warnings -- which he clearly ignored -- before being banned makes it even better.
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Come on
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wait he has a lawyer?
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1st Amendment
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Knowledge?
This guy seems like a DSM-IV nightmare.
FAIL!
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Re:
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Hello me on crystal meth
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So what'd he do?
On another note, I bad mouth everyone in first person shooters - it's why I have a mute button (saves on embarassment when I get my ass handed back to me)
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So what - exactly - do these people think the "Terms of Service" agreement is for?
"If you accept this Agreement, you are subject to its terms and all other agreements that you have entered into in connection with PSN. You agree that you will not directly or indirectly use PSN (i) in any way for any commercial purpose, (ii) in any way that violates the law or the community code of conduct..." etc
continued:
"3. COMMUNITY CODE OF CONDUCT
You must adhere to the following rules of conduct, and also follow a reasonable, common-sense code of conduct. Users are required to take into consideration community standards and refrain from abusive or deceptive conduct, cheating, hacking, or other misuse of PSN. Rights of other players should be respected."
A full list of the things that Playstation can punish you for can be found Here. Some of the punishable offenses may surprise you.
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Civil Rights NOT Constitutional Rights
Yes, the Constitution is clearly defining what the Government can or can't do, how this guys Attorney failed to pick up on this is amazing, but, there is still something to be said about a person's Civil Rights.
Now before you get stupid and come down screaming at me, no, this guys Civil Rights weren't violated either, just pointing out that if he is suing, he should at least be suing for the right RIGHT.
There is one point of contention that most of you have chosen not to discuss, and that's the fact that he has money in his account and SONY isn't letting him have it back or granting access to it. This IS a huge mistake on SONY's part, and precedent has already been set for this with the Second Life lawsuit where the person was banned for a bannable offense, but money in the acct wasn't returned or given access to. The Judge tossed the EULA covering SL and said they have to either grant him access to his acct or refund his money. I have a feeling that everything but the Money issue will be tossed, and as soon as that happens, SONY will refund this guys money and the Judge will then say "No Harm, No Foul". I would LOVE to be in the Gallery when this first comes up though, to hear the Judge's reaction to "Constitutional Rights Violation"; better yet, to hear the Judge tell the Attorney to go back to for a refresher course.
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Re: Civil Rights NOT Constitutional Rights
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Excuse me
First amendment?
Son, the first amendment protects you from the government
Not from me
You can say whatever you want to out there
You come within reach of me
I'll exercise my right to give you a good ol' country ass whoopin'
Is what I'll do for you
"
Umm... we have the right to assault people for saying things that we don't like now? Funny, I always just thought that I had the right to, you know, not listen to things I don't like. I hate this mentality, Trace Adkins should go back to the trailer park and stop spouting non-sense like this. Sure, he has the right, but that doesn't make him any less of a backwoods, hillbilly, incestuous moron.
Oh, and the PS3 kid is a retard.
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And a Trace Adkins fan, according to my wholely unsubstantiated reports.
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I agree that everything will probably be laughed at except for the money issue. The lawyar probably knows that, and it will be his primary goal to get the money, anthing else is just a bonus.
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Rob,
I have to believe that you were one of those kids growing up that that threatened their parents to call child abuse if their parents hit them. Panty wastes. Granted I don't agree with actual child abuse. A good whoopin (as most call it in the south / actually from Boston myself) isn't all that bad.
Now to your comment on the song....you're a retard. If you spent the time actually listening to the song you'd understand what was being said and to whom. Father talking to his son about what he might expect for doing stupid crap. Or even talking back to him.
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Re: Re:
This is the most common response most of us hear to the first amendment argument anyways. I got into that argument with a co-worker of mine. I said something about the first amendment and he responded with "The first amendment protects you from the government from stopping you but it doesn't stop me from giving you an ass whoopin'". His exact words. So it's quite easy to mix that up without context.
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A Douche is a Douche by Any Other name
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Interesting!
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Re:
Interesting!"
Not really - constitutional rights are protections FROM GOVERNMENT (the State) - SONY though a very large corporation is NOT a government. Its a pretty clear and simple distinction?
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You baby...
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Gamer files 1st amendment suit
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Re: Gamer files 1st amendment suit
Then his attorney is even stupider then he is, no court will ever hear this case . . . SONY will never need to defend anything
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Only a month ban and his name isn't Erik Estavillo
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This guy has too much time on his hands.
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Companies are licensed by the state
Most of the freedom of speech and trespassing on public property charges I have been seeing lately is done by licensing out an area of control out to a private company and then letting them violate everyones rights.
Restricting speech online is the same as if your phone connection were to be cut off if you used a swear word. Everyone is for censoring phone speech right?
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If you disable or delete this video, youtube, I'll just upload it at every other video site and send this video to all the news networks I can.
Also, I'll post this message on their message boards.
"I've only had my channel for 2 months now and it has 3,000+ views. In a year's time, my channel will be one of the more popular ones. However, I've recently gotten a "strike" on my youtube account. I think there's a bit of hypocrisy since you just featured a video: the "YouTube Time Capsule!" from a girl lacigreen. Her channel, if you hadn't noticed, also involves videos of a raunchy nature; including a video about orgasms. I'm copying this letter to as many message boards as I can. Thank you and goodnight."
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Heloo
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