[dvd-discuss] Federal Judge Says Videogames Not Speech

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson(at)realmeasures.dyndns.org>]

(Forwarded from POLITECH list, declan@well.com.  The judge
appears to overlook the difference wrought by the nature of
digital works, media and logic devices.  -- Seth)


-------- Original Message --------
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:07:00 -0400
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>


Robert found the text of the opinion, which is here:
http://pacer.moed.uscourts.gov/opinions/INTERACTIVE_DIGITAL_SOFTWARE_ASSOC_V_ST_LOUIS_COUNTY-SNL-36.PDF

Two excerpts:

This Court reviewed four different video games, and found no
conveyance of  ideas, expression, or anything else that
could possibly amount to speech.  The Court finds that video
games have more in common with board games and  sports than
they do with motion pictures... The Court has trouble
seeing  how an ordinary game with no First Amendment
protection, can suddenly  become expressive when technology
is used to present it in "video" form.

The Court finds that plaintiffs failed to meet this burden
of showing that  video games are a protected form of speech
under the First Amendment.  However, even if plaintiffs
could establish that video games are a form of  expression,
their constitutional argument still fails.

Previous Politech messages:

"Appeals courts rule on violent arcade games (YES),
anonymity (NO)"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01433.html

"Sell 'violent' video games to a teenager, go to jail"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03238.html

-Declan

---

From: "Robert Helmer" <roberthelmer@earthlink.net>
To: <declan@well.com>
Subject: Vid Games and First Amendment
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 11:29:42 -0500

Declan, thought you might be interested that the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch is reporting that the federal court in St.
Louis has ruled that "video games are not free speech." What
follows are a few paragraphs from the story and the link to
St/ Louis Today, one of the Post-Dispatch's web sites.

Bob Helmer

Daily Rotation
http://www.dailyrotation.com
Shell Extension City
http://www.shellcity.net
St. Louis, Missouri


Officials surprised by ruling on violent video games

By Eric Stern
Of the Post-Dispatch
04/29/2002 08:59 PM

Two years ago, St. Louis County wanted to add teeth to the
industry's
rating system by making it illegal to sell sexually explicit
and
violent video games to minors without parental consent.

So, the county passed a law. As expected, it got sued by
video game
makers, but last week, it unexpectedly won an initial ruling
in
federal court.

Now the county is trying to figure out what to do next.
Should it
enforce a law that one federal court has ruled
unconstitutional?
Should it spend more time and money defending the law, maybe
all the
way to the U.S. Supreme Court, against an industry that had
$6 billion
in sales last year? Or should it try to reach a settlement?

Despite a ruling in a different federal circuit, U.S.
District Judge
Stephen Limbaugh last week said video games are not free
speech and
ruled that the county has a compelling interest to protect
the
physical and emotional health of children. He rejected the
video game
industry's attempt to throw out the ordinance, and the case
is heading
to trial.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/6F953FEE16C0CE4B86256BAB000CFBE7?OpenDocument&Headline=Officials%20surprised%20by%20ruling%20on%20violent%20video%20games


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