Archive for the ‘Jack Thompson v. Florida Bar Association’ Category
Posted by Liz Surette on
April 17, 2009
This morning, Jack Thompson’s petition for a writ of certiorari (basically a complaint accompanied by an appellate brief) was circulated among the nine Justices, who will decide whether or not to hear his appeal of his disbarrment. As of this writing (about 5:40pm Eastern Time), there is no word on their decision. We can expect to hear more news on Monday, when the Court’s weekly Order List is posted on the Supreme Court’s official website. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: unranked [?]
Posted by Dan on
April 3, 2009
At long last, we’ve found video footage from my panel at PAX 08, entitled “Legal Issues in Contemporary Games”. Thanks to Youtube user pipedreamer for getting it uploaded!
The video is split into 4 parts, the first of which can be found here. Note that the 2nd part is mislabeled “part 1″ as well, but differs in that it has Tom Buscaglia in the first frame (the actual part 1 has myself and Ross Dannenberg in the first frame). Parts 3 and 4 are labeled as normal.
Link: Part 1
Popularity: unranked [?]
Posted under
1st Amendment,
DMCA,
Games,
Intellectual Property,
Jack Thompson v. Florida Bar Association,
Law,
Lawsuits,
MDY Industries v. Blizzard,
Policy,
VSDA v. Schwarzenegger,
Violence
Posted by Dan on
April 1, 2009
Gamepolitics has a spectacular interview with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, regarding the Jack Thompson bill (HB353) and subsequent veto. Here’s a clip:
GP: You’ve come under severe criticism from Jack Thompson in recent days in regard to the video game bill vetoed by Gov. Huntsman last week. Can you comment?
Shurtleff: Well, I just consider the source. I don’t take what Jack Thompson says – give it much credence. This latest demand that I prosecute certain crimes shows me that he knows about as much about criminal law as he does about constitutional law…
The AG shows a remarkable understanding of our industry, and is one of the rare politicians that actually understands the ESRB. Again from the article:
GP: In recent years, you have had a friendly relationship with the video game industry. You did a public service announcement for the ESRB in 2006 and, in 2008, the ESA donated money to your campaign.
Shurtleff: My attitude is there’s a great rating system. I feel very strongly that the ESRB rating system works. It’s something that every parent ought to know about. And let me make it very clear that, while our officers and prosecutors didn’t think we could prosecute someone for selling Grand theft Auto IV, I certainly would strongly recommend against any parent letting their kids play the game. I don’t let my kids play it. Parents ought to be parents when it comes to games like that.
The full interview is available here.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Posted by Dan on
January 14, 2009
JAABlog, the blog for JAABlaw.com which is a southern Florida attorney news site that Jack Thompson likes to frequent sent him an open letter today.
Dear Jack,
We hope this letter finds you well. We do, however, have some bad news for you.
Your blogging rights are being curtailed.
Our friends, supporters, and even sworn enemies have had enough of your incessant, narcissistic diatribes.
While we are firm believers in unfettered, open source comments, everyone is sick to death of you infecting each and every post with your thoughts and legal briefs. From this point forward, you will not be allowed to hijack and frustrate the commentary.
That being said, we still believe in the First Amendment, and we believe it applies to everyone, regardless of race, creed, class, or mental stability. We also feel bad for you, since we know you have nowhere else left to post, and no blog of your own that anyone would care to read.
Accordingly, pursuant to our two (2) disclaimers, you are hereby expressly forbidden to comment anywhere on JAABLOG but on this post, and this post only (”AN OPEN LETTER TO JACK THOMPSON”). If you feel your comments are getting too numerous for your fan club to follow, simply let us know you wish to start over, and we will have the comments section cleared. In time, if you behave,
we might even let you name the post any way you wish.
If, however, you violate this rule, you will be blocked and permanently banned from publishing on JAABLOG for all eternity. Any comments that do appear will be summarily deleted.
Dear, dear Jack, we have been more than patient. Frankly, you could cause Buddah or Jesus himself to ditch you in a restaurant after the order has been placed. Still, we have faith in you. Don’t let us down.
With love and affection,
JAABLOG
Not that this will necessarily stop him. He’s been banned before at other sites, such as GamePolitics.com. I thought about it, (preemptively expecting the question,) but as of now I’m not prepared to ban Jack from this site. For one, he’s not that frequent of a visitor here, and for another, I believe in transparency and openness of forum as much as possible. I want to be clear, I’m not critical of JAABlog’s decision, because they’ve had significantly more exposure to him than we have. Comparing us to them is like comparing apples to oranges. If Jack ever gets to the point here that he was at JAABlog, I’d probably take measures to ban him too, but for the meantime, he isn’t.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Posted by Dan on
December 18, 2008
Not that this is news to any of you, since we all know of Jack Thompson’s disbarrment. But the Florida Bar News had this to say Monday:
The Florida Bar News Disciplinary Actions for December 15, 2008
John Bruce Thompson, 5721 Riviera Drive, Coral Gables, permanently disbarred without leave to apply for readmission, effective 30 days from a September 25 court order. (Admitted to practice: 1977) Thompson is charged with extensive misconduct and a complete lack of remorse. In five separate cases over a three-and-a-half year period, Thompson engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation. (Case Nos. SC07-80 and SC07-354)
Awesomesauce, I must say, and appropriate to note the “complete lack of remorse.” Thompson has been pretty quiet as of late. Lets see if this latest “blow” from the bar sets him off. Gameslaw readers will remember that Thompson believes (and has stated to the court) that we (GamesLaw) are one of his enemies, a criminal element of the games industry. We look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Posted by Liz Surette on
October 24, 2008
Because I have heard no word that the Federal District Court has stayed Jack Thompson’s disbarment, I can only assume that we can close the book on this chapter in gaming’s history. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 6% [?]
Posted by Dan on
October 22, 2008
Now for another update on Jack Thompson. Just think, soon we’ll be free (hopefully) from all this line of news.
Andrew writes:
Included in today’s update is the wonderful Supplement filed earlier today in which GamesLaw is mentioned, as well as a Notice by the Florida Bar of the Appearance of the Attornies for the defense.
There is also a Notice by John Bruce of a Sworn Statement by a Third Party in support of John Bruce’s request for an Emergency Stay on behalf of Bill Corbin, another disbarred attorney.
Grab the files here.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Posted by Dan on
October 21, 2008
Jack Thompson really doesn’t like us now. Not as much as he hates GamePolitics, or the ECA, or even Kotaku (Hi Crecente!) but still, we’re not on his christmas list.
As evidence of this, Thompson has recently filed a motion in his lawsuit against the Florida Bar referring to this website, GamesLaw.net, as a “video game enem[y]” doing “criminal activities”. But get this, it’s a motion to….stay the Jack Thompson Disbarment Countdown Clock that a user at the ECA forums created. Yep. Clearly, this is a proper use of the court’s valuable time.
Anyway, Thompson rants predictably in his motion, accusing Kotaku Managing Editor Brian Crecente and Gawker Media founder Nick Denton of being gay, and wanting a homosexual tryst with Thompson; Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two interactive of essentially supporting murder art; and other less interesting rants against the ESA, the ECA, Doug Lowenstein, etc. His legal support for his motion is a quote from Jesus, followed up by accusing his detractors of being worse facist kooks than Justice Douglas’ “goose-stepping brigades.” Oh, and we’re a commerce-driven lynch mob. Right.
Mr. Thompson, we’re honored that you would think of us as your enemy, but we’re rather offended that you mentioned us in a motion rife with typos, and only give us a one sentence paragraph (with poor text justification at that). Seriously, would it hurt to run a spell checker?
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted by Dan on
October 18, 2008
We received lots of copies of Jack Thompson’s most recent court filings today, most of which are for the Thompson v. Florida Bar case. Note that the combined exhibits are almost 360 pages in size and span documents dating back to July. Analysis and discussion follow after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 20% [?]
Posted by Dan on
October 14, 2008
An update to our previous post on Jack Thompson’s federal cases. We’ve got three more filings from Thompson courtesy of user Nightwng2000. Grab them below.
Popularity: 100% [?]
