Video Game Law Review - June 22

Original image from: ParentsTV.org


Here's what's happening in the Video Game Legal world this week and last:

Louisiana Passes Separate 'Obscene Games' Bill

HB1381 the bill in the LA legislature covering violent video games, was passed into law last week. The Entertainment Software Association ("ESA") looks to challenge its validity in court. But, another video game-related bill, SB340 has the full support of the ESA and much of the mainstream video game industry. It deals only with only with "explicitly pornographic sexual content in games, not violence". The overwhelming support from just about everyone in the industry for this new law which will be modeled after LA's obscenity statutes, "and treat the sale of games with sexually explicit content to minors, much the same as the sale of pornography" pretty much confirms the fact that as Americans we will expose our kids to gruesome killing over an immoral sexual images anyday.

Immersion Counters Sony With TouchSense Vibration

From Gamasutra: "Immersion Corporation, which is currently in the process of suing Sony over alleged misuse of controller rumble patents, has officially announced its TouchSense vibration technology for next-generation consoles.

"This technology supplies a wider range of vibration effects that "attempt to offer greater realism than that which is offered on existing console platforms", and is clearly a counter to Sony's E3 claims that the PlayStation 3 controller will lack a rumble feature - due, they say, to hardware interference caused by its recently-announced gyroscopic controls."

This is Immersions way of saying: "IN YOUR FACE SONY!" But seriously, Sony's excuse for a lack of vibration technology in their upcoming PS3 controller was pretty lame, especially considering the fact that the the Nintendo Wii controller is built around motion capture and has pretty robust vibration capabilities. All-in-all, Sony should have just inked a licensing deal like everyone else, avoided a $90 million CA federal district court judgment against them, and spared us the lameness of potentially paying $600 for a PS3 system w/o vibrating controllers.

Video Game Law Review - June 12th

Before we begin let me start by saying it has been a busy summer! I thought that I'd have more time to do these posts now that law school is out for three months, but the day job's been heating up, my internship keeps me going and I've been writing a novel that is scheduled to be published in September. Needless to say, I've missed this place; but enough about me - here's what's happening:

The FTC and Take Two have finally settled the Hot Coffee Mod contraversy. You remember that one, right? If you put in a code to your console Grand Theft Auto San Andreas you could unlock a mini-game that lets you control the main character as he copulates with unwitting females, (it was pretty graphic too). Ultimately, the two entities agreed on an $11,000 fine for any future hot coffee style incidents, plus the publication of software code that allows parents or other concerned parties to block the mini-game.

Louisiana unanamously passed a Video Game Violence bill (HB1381) by a vote of 102 to 0. The bill would "prohibit the sale of games to minors that could be deemed as potentially harmful." It would call for measures that allow a judge to determine whether a video game meets "established criteria" that renders it appropriate for sale to minors. If it fails to do so, then the game could be pulled from store shelves and only sold to those over 18 with ID. The Governor has yet to sign the bill, but if she does, then a guilty party could face fines ranging from $100 to $2000, plus a prison term up to one year. No criteria was explicitly mentioned as to what constitutes "potentially harmful" content and there were murmurs that such a bill might be unconstitutional (as ruled in other federal jurisdictions). The ESA, a group that has had some success fighting such bills on First Amendment grounds said: "We believe that a combination of parental choice and parental control is the only legal, sensible, and most importantly, effective way to help parents keep inappropriate video games from children, and we dedicate ourselves to working with all parties to accomplish this goal."

The governor of Minnesota has signed a bill into law (HF1298 bill), which would levy $25 fines against any minors who purchase M (Mature) or AO (Adult Only) rated video games. Far from criminalizing video games, the bill's promulgator Jeff Johnson, said that the offense would not go on the child's record. The bill takes effect on August 1st 2006.

Valve Corporation v. Sierra Entertainment, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29617, case write up will be posted soon.