Supreme Court rules video games qualify for First Amendment protection
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of video games, saying video games are protected by "the basic principles of freedom of speech."
As expected, the Supreme Court has come to a decision in a case that would ultimately determine if video games can qualify for First Amendment protection. The answer was overwhelming a "yes," as the court ruled in favor of the games industry 7-2. The full decision summarizes it quite clearly:
Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And “the basic principles of freedom of speech... do not vary” with a new and different communication medium.
The ruling should come as unsurprising, given the Court's opinion during the original case. In November, Justice Ginsberg questioned the legality of California's attempt to restrict the sale of video games to minors: "if you are supposing a category of violent materials dangerous to children, then how do you cut it off at video games? What about films? What about comic books? Grimm's fairy tales? Why are video games special? Or does your principle extend to all deviant, violent material in whatever form?"
One of the bill's original proponents, then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the proposed bill would "ensure that parents are involved in determining which video games are appropriate for their children." Hopefully, supporters of California's effort to ban violent video games will see that today's ruling doesn't stop that effort. Even with violent video games on store shelves, you can always choose not to buy them for your children.
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Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Supreme Court rules in favor of video games.
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of video games, saying video games are protected by "the basic principles of freedom of speech."-
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Probably meant to link this one: http://www.shacknews.com/article/65927/send-california-senator-leland-yee?id=24201407#itemanchor_24201407
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This is how they voted:
"SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which KENNEDY, GINSBURG, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. ALITO, J., filed an opin-ion concurring in the judgment, in which ROBERTS, C. J., joined. THO-MAS, J., and BREYER, J., filed dissenting opinions."
Breyer was appointed by Clinton and Thomas by Bush Sr. Scalia and Kennedy were appointed by Reagan. Ginsburg was appointed by Clinton. Roberts and Alito were appointed by Bush Jr. Sotomayor and Kagan were appointed by Obama. -
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will be reading the actual opinion! I did a whole unit on laws pertaining to video game violence and the california law in particular. I think the decision isn't surprising but it is is a relief. I think for the most part, video games are still misunderstood by the older generations, but as seen in past cases, the California law didn't hold up to strict scrutiny standards.
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this was fairly non-partisan actually. the bill was introduced in California by a Democrat but the appeal process was led by Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who appealed to the ninth circuit when it was struck down by the district courts and then to the supreme court when the ninth circuit upheld the district court's rulings. the two supreme court dissenters are also fairly different. Clarence Thomas is easily the most conservative justice and Breyer is among the more liberal.
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age gates are required by the ESRB for compliance. if you don't have them for M-rated (or potential M-rated) game content (which includes all marketing materials related to the game, such as trailers) then you get fined and the ESRB will be annoyed with you and when the ESRB is annoyed they become giant babies that are impossible to reason with
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they have authority because devs and publishers grant them authority. just like the MPAA it's voluntary. you can make games that aren't rated by the ESRB, but major retailers will not carry them (unless they are shitty puzzle games or something) and first-party console makers will not certify them, which means you are pretty much limited to selling the game online on Steam or something.
I don't know specifics about third-party news sites like the Shack or Giant Bomb or something, but I assume that is because they are displaying marketing materials. the location doesn't matter. if you're asking what would happen if Giant Bomb suddenly decided to turn off all age gates I would assume that the publishers would get fined and then promptly stop sending material to the site (which would hurt the site) or possibly even ban them from publishing it until they promised to age gate it? the ESRB doesn't have authority over web sites that just publish materials, which is why they generally get away with it. likely pubs/devs just ask the sites to age gate stuff and the sites comply because you don't want to strain that relationship.
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MorrisatCNN did a nice write up of some of the highlights in the ruling here: http://weblogs.variety.com/technotainment/2011/06/highlights-from-the-supreme-court-gaming-decision.html
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