Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Posted by Dan on
November 25, 2009
In case you haven’t heard by now, the annual Desert Bus for Hope event for the Child’s Play charity (run by the good folks at Penny Arcade) is in full swing. We’ve made our annual donation, and I encourage you to do so as well. Last year Desert Bus raised over $70,000 for Children’s Hospitals, and already this year they are at $85,000+ after 4 days and 14 hours of constant playing of Desert Bus — the most boring game of all time. The cool thing about Desert Bus is that it is interactive; they have a live videocast as well as .gifs of donation levels on the main site; last year they gave us a nice shoutout after our donation. It’s a great cause, and a fabulous idea. Please donate.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Posted by Liz Surette on
October 19, 2009
Most attempts by state legislatures to censor the game industry involve statutes which prohibit the distribution of ”violent video games” to minors. However, these statutes have invariably been stricken down by federal courts because they sought to restrict distribution of games, the contents of which fell into a category of speech (violence) that is protected under the First Amendment and the respective states could not show the requisite danger of imminent lawless action that the First Amendment requires in order to restrict speech that is protected(1). Very recently in VSDA v. Schwarzenegger, the Ninth Circuit struck down one such statute for that reason(2). Through this and other examples, we see that courts are loathe to create new categories of unprotected speech, or to expand the categories that are already unprotected(3). On October 6th, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in US v. Stevens, which challenges the Constitutional validity of a federal statute that prohibits the creation, sale, and possession of depictions animal cruelty. Due to the insight into the new Court roster’s attitudes on First Amendment issues that Stevens will offer, we are watching closely. Hit the jump for an in-depth analysis. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 24% [?]
Posted by Liz Surette on
July 27, 2009
I regret that I have not been around for awhile due to my workload, but I wanted to let everyone know that I’m still keeping an eye on things and hopefully I will be posting something on noncompete agreements soon.
Aside from that, I want to wish our readers the best of luck on the impending bar exam or next week’s MPRE…
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted by Liz Surette on
April 20, 2009
As we expected, the Supreme Court announced today that certiorari was denied in Thompson v. The Florida Bar, in which longtime game industry antagonist Jack Thompson attempted to appeal his disbarment. The explosive saga has ended in a rather lackluster way, as the disposition of his case in the Court’s weekly order list is easily lost among the many other failed appeals.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted by Liz Surette on
March 12, 2009
The Utah Senate has just passed an amendment to HB 353, adding the words “by presenting false age identification” to the supposed safe harbor provision of the bill that protects a retailer from liability when a purchaser misrepresents their age to the retailer.
Concern was expressed that this amendment creates a de facto requirement that retailers card for purchase of M-rated games, and a worry that treble damages would result from a breach. However, Senator Dayton denied that treble damages would be imposed.
As I write this, new amendments will be argued and the bill’s fate overall will be voted on later tonight. Stay close.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted by Eric on
March 3, 2009
Making the rounds of video game news sites comes breaking news that the Utah House of Representatives has passed HB 353, which, as reported previously, amends Utah’s Truth in Advertising Act with language that would penalize businesses (read: sellers of video games) with a hefty fine (up to $2,000 per incident) if they are caught selling M-rated video games to minors. The bill passed the house with a resounding 70-2 vote.
The rationale behind the amendment, which can be viewed here, centers around deceptive advertising and sales. Specficially, since minors are not allowed to purchase M-rated games, any subsequent sale to a minor constitutes deceptive advertising by making implicit assumptions to (minor) customers that they in fact can purchase these titles when in reality they are not allowed to.
Websites are reporting that game retailers are no longer opposing the bill, which will now move to the Utah Senate for consideration.
Stay tuned to Gameslaw for more information and analysis on this latest attempt to curb sales of violent video games.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Posted by Liz Surette on
February 8, 2009
As I reported earlier, Jack Thompson’s latest attempt at game industry regulation focuses not on content-based sales restrictions, but on creating a new category of false advertising. After some speculation, the language of the new bill (sponsored by Utah Representative Mike Morley) has been released. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted by Dan on
December 27, 2008
A quick note — if any of you are former subscribers to Wikilaw, and are using the RSS Feed from that site, you’ll probably have noticed that there are a bunch of ads for payday loans and other nonsense. That’s because I no longer control the former Wikilaw site and it is now taken over by a spammer. If you’re receiving the spam ads, please update your RSS Feed to the one available from this site. Thanks!
Popularity: unranked [?]
Posted by Dan on
December 18, 2008
More craziness in response to our recent post about the Florida Bar’s announcement on the disciplinary action disbarring Jack Thompson. Thompson had the following comments to say:
Mayanne Downs
King, Blackwell, Downs & Zehnder
<REDACTED ADDRESS/PHONE>
Dear Ms. Downs:
Congratulations on just being elected President-Elect of The Florida Bar today, as you were unopposed. As I understand it, you will be installed into that office this coming June.
Let me tell you what you have to look forward to, as an officer of The Bar:
I will secure a Florida constitutional amendment removing the regulation of the practice of law from the judicial branch and placing it within the Department of Professional and Business Regulation where it belongs with the oversight of every other profession in our state.
Further, The Bar will be successfully sued under the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act for its “discipline” of me because of the activist exercise of my Christian faith. Maybe you all can get Steve Chaykin to testify that that was not the case. There are other grounds for this state lawsuit as well, including Florida’s Anti-SLAPP statute.
Finally, you personally are going to have to explain to a jury why The Bar’s Board of Governors, on which you now sit, executed a formal document, dated July 29, 2008, that on its face admits that the Governors covered up the prosecutorial misconduct of Leon County Prosecutor Matt Smith in order to keep an innocent man in jail.
You will rue the day you were elected to this office.
Regards, Jack Thompson
Followed immediately by the following rant:
Jack Thompson, Once and Future Attorney (Trust Me) wrote:
HEY, BILL, YOU SOUND NERVOUS. HERE’S SOMETHING FOR YOU TO REMEMBER, IF YOU CAN: HE WHO LAUGHS LAST LAUGHS BEST. OH, AND DAVA AIN’T LAUGHING ABOUT THIS, ARE YOU, BILL?
John B. Thompson, J.D.
<THOMPSONS ADDRESS/PHONE/EMAIL REDACTED TO PREVENT HARASSMENT OR SPAM>
December 16, 2008
Dava Tunis
Referee
<JUDGE TUNIS ADDRESS REDACTED>
Re: Hearing on Motion to Vacate Referee’s Report
Dear Referee Tunis:
You will either give me a hearing before you on the enclosed Motion to Vacate, or I will get an order making you give me one.
Have a nice day!
Regards, Jack Thompson
Perhaps Jack would have been more successful as a trial attorney if he didn’t take such a demanding, abrasive tone with Florida jurists.
And finally:
Jack Thompson, Once and Future Attorney (Trust Me) wrote:
Petition to amend the Florida Constitution and remove discipline from The Florida Bar, as recommended by the ABA and as done in other states, will be available to the public shortly.
Sweet!
I’ll be laughing my ass off next time I see that on a Florida ballot. I knew there was a reason I still vote in Florida.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Posted by Dan on
December 17, 2008
We’re about to upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 shortly. The site will be offline for a short time. Please contact us with any major problems you see.
Update: the upgrade should be complete. Please let us know if you see anything screwed up with the site.
Popularity: unranked [?]
