violent-game-bill
Latest
Report: Anti-games Sen. Leland Yee arrested on bribery, corruption charges
California State Senator Leland Yee, noted anti-video games official, was arrested this morning on charges of bribery and corruption, SF Weekly reported. The FBI conducted a raid of San Francisco's Chinatown district, and KCRA reported that agents took "computers and other documents" from Yee's office in the state capitol. Yee previously urged the Supreme Court to review the violent games bill AB-1179 his office authored in 2005, which failed at the Circuit Court level before being pushed through by then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' ruling, deeming the law a violation of First Amendment rights. Yee responded to the decision, declaring that it "put the interests of corporate America before the interests of our children" and that the games industry continued to profit "at the expense of our kids' mental health and the safety of our community." The news of Yee's arrest brings to mind anti-violent games attorney Jack Thompson's disbarment by the state of Florida in September 2008. Thompson's body of work included multiple failed Utah games bills. [Image: Leland Yee]
Leland Yee and Activision VP to debate if games should be restricted
Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, March 17! Make your way down to the San Francisco Commonwealth Club to see two titans of the "violent games" debate square off in an argumentative deathmatch. We're speaking, of course, of Activision vice president George Rose and California state legislator Leland Yee, who authored the infamous AB-1179; the mature game ban bill that made its way up to the Supreme Court in November. The two men will be debating the bill alongside Stanford Constitutional Law Center director Michael McConnell, with San Francisco Chronicle editor John Diaz serving as moderator, in a panel appropriately titled "Should Sales of Violent Video Games Be Restricted?" If you're in the Bay area, you can grab your tickets now. You're not going to want to miss it. We hear there's gonna be points and counterpoints.
Proposal in Swiss government could ban violent games
According to a report out of consonant-heavy Swiss gaming site GamesMarkt, Switzerland's parliament recently passed a law that could lead to an across the board ban on "violent" games being sold in the country. Apparently a proposal was inked last month that aimed to remove games which require "cruel acts of violence against humans and human-like creatures for in-game success" -- a proposal that has apparently been passed by the Swiss National Council. Since the initial proposal has passed, it's said to now be up to the Swiss parliament exactly how the law is enacted. If you're a Swiss gamer interested in challenging the new law, we encourage you to contact local politicians, as GamesIndustry.biz points out that "citizens are able to challenge any new law passed by parliament if they can show sufficient opposition to it." Given the petitions we've seen some of you get into, we're hoping this one will be a no brainer. [Via GamesIndustry.biz]
LA Times: Parents should regulate what games kids play, not government
In one of the most well-reasoned and least sensationalized articles on government regulation of violent games we've ever seen out of the mainstream press, the Los Angeles Times recently published an editorial pointing out the unnecessary and unconstitutional nature of a recently rebuked California bill which mandated "18+" warning labels be applied to M-rated games, and enforced strict $1,000 penalties for retailers who sold such titles to minors.The editorial denotes the flawed logic which went into the bipartisan regulation, and aptly places the onus for keeping adult-centric titles out of youngsters' hands on their parental units, who "don't need permission from a legislator or judge to keep an eye on what their children are doing." We can't help but agree -- besides, with the Golden State currently staring down the barrel of a $42 billion deficit, we're not convinced that the taxpayers of California can afford to keep making such charitable donations to the ESA.
