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Kotaku Games Blog Sued By Jack Thompson
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:17 PM
from the he-done-stepped-in-it dept.
from the he-done-stepped-in-it dept.
Reacting to Kotaku's coverage of comments Thompson made last week about the VA Tech incident, Thompson has sued Kotaku and their parent company Gawker media. He also tried to sic the FBI on them (getting as much success there as he did with the Penny Arcade gents). From GamePolitics' coverage: "Thompson's ire was apparently raised by Kotaku reader comments which the attorney maintains are threatening. He also alleges in the complaint that Kotaku and Gawker declined to remove the menacing posts. The messages in question stem from Kotaku's coverage of Thompson's claims that video games prompted last week's Virginia Tech massacre. The Gawker suit is actually an amendment to an action Thompson filed on March 13th against the Florida bar. On April 11th he amended it to include the members of the Florida Supreme Court. And now Gawker joins the list of defendants."
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Self Sacrifice? (Score:4, Funny)
Legal Precedent (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Legal Precedent (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The Florida bar "kicked his ass" the last time he sued them by dropping 20 g's in his lap to shut him up.
Problem is, he didn't stay shut up, so he's before the FL supreme court facing disciplinary charges. He's not facing any felonies (not since Take-Two settled) so they probably won't do much more than suspend him for a year or two, if that.
It still doesn't affect his standing to file suits. Still, I see Kotaku collecting
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It Gets Worse (Score:4, Insightful)
I blogged about this yesterday [kennethpike.com]. I just completed my first year of law school, and was a little bit shocked to read Jack's complaint. It is a vertiable "how-to" on things that my first-year writing professors strongly warn us against doing! I picked five of my favorite WTF!? moments and talk about their departure from standards of civility. It is particularly interesting to note that as a graduate of Vanderbilt, Jack comes from a fairly high-ranking law school that doubtless teaches is students better than this.
As I mention in my entry, the sort of language Jack employs would be unsurprising in a blog or editorial piece. We expect him to be a zealot for his cause when he appears on TV. But the courts (ostensibly) call for a bit more decorum.
Parent
Translation: (Score:4, Funny)
"Waah! Your readers were mean to me!"
If only all the nutjobs were as easily dismissable as Jack.
Re:Translation: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I heard QQ used in daoc over 4 years ago, and in IRC further back than that, its just a slang term for text chat
Grandpa (Score:5, Funny)
read the lawsuit (Score:4, Funny)
Re:read the lawsuit (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
S'ok. I've written to the headquarters of a few stores to complain about their lack of selection and referred to their buyers as "either incompetent or stupid". Granted, that didn't help my case to get them to change their selection but it felt good to let them know what I thought of the people who do their buying.
Jack's probably the same way. It makes him feel good even if it doesn't get results.
Re:read the lawsuit (Score:5, Funny)
"The happy result was that Thompson is now the only officially Bar-certified sane lawyer in Florida."
Wow. I can't believe this guy puts things like this into legal filings.
Parent
Rule him vexatious already! (Score:5, Insightful)
"Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought, regardless of its merits, solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action. It is considered an abuse of the judicial process and almost always brings down sanctions on the offender." -- wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I actually don't think he does this to "harass or subdue an adversary"...
The pettifogger follows that pattern:
http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php [vgcats.com] - Jack Thompson makes threats to press criminal charges for harassment - even though he initiated the conversation
http://kotaku.com/gaming/jack-thompson/penny-arcad e-vs-jack-thompson-131534.php [kotaku.com] - Jack Thompson requests a police investigation when Penny Arcade donates to a charity.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/legal/another-jackass-tho mpson-lawsuit-coming-202894.php [kotaku.com] - Jack Thompson in an infamous anti-T2 GTA case.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/jack- [kotaku.com]
Dear Mr. Thompson, (Score:5, Insightful)
Much like you, we were deeply disturbed by the actions of the shooter at Virginia Tech and feel terribly for the families of the lost. However we deeply resent the fact that you have totally bypassed the issue at hand and chosen instead to scapegoat the electronic entertainment industry. Perhaps instead of blaming videogames (which are clearly not your area of expertise [teamxbox.com]) we should instead delve a little deeper in order to find what causes these depraved/deprived individuals to take such drastic measures. Your "proof" of a link to video game violence is tenuous at best - equivalent to such joke statistics as bread creating murderers [snopes.com]. Statistical correlation is not proof of cause and effect but beyond that, you have failed to even show a statistical correlation, instead bringing up the specific examples where the statistics say what you want to prove.
Like naysayers for the past several centuries, you see the advent of a new form of entertainment as the downfall of society. Novels, the waltz, radio and television have all been targetted in the past and so far civilization has emerged unscathed (but not unchanged).
Perhaps this is the issue; you (and millions of right-wing conservatives) are afraid of what the future may bring. Who knows what changes the liberalization of the West may bring?
In short, we feel that you are doing nobody any good - you are attempting (and luckily failing) to take the attention away from the actual issues (which in the case of the VT shooting are as of yet indetermined).
Signed,
Gamers of the world.
P.S. While we harbour you no malice, I wouldn't suggest you attempt any retribution - we have all been trained on "murder simulators" . . .
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> (and millions of right-wing conservatives) are afraid of what the future may bring
Yeah, because "millions of right-wing conservatives" don't play games. Because gamers are one vast hivemind and march in lockstep to the promised socialist future. What crap -- in a story about gaming! As if Democrats [breitbart.com] are immune from the knee-jerk "bash gamers" disease.
And oh --
> Who knows what changes the liberalization of the
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously, what is it? (Score:2, Insightful)
I thought it was common sense that if you get proven wrong (or your lies dissected) that you get the fuck over
Re:Seriously, what is it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine that you have built a business around selling tiger-repelling rocks. Not crazy huge, but enough that you live quite comfortably and can even get on TV being interviewed about your success as a self-made entrepeneur.
Would you ever admit that the idea of a tiger-repelling rock is nonsense? Would you accept any proof that was offered, no matter how robust and bulletproof, that your rocks did nothing? Of course not. You might know that your rock is useless, but you aren't going to say so, because as long as your insistence that your rock does its job perfectly convinces some people, then they will buy your rocks and you continue to make money. When nobody believes you any more, well, then you just come out with the wolverine-repelling friendship bracelet and you're back in business.
"Video games (as opposed to complex social problems) cause violence" is all JT has. He isn't going to give that up so long as a single person is willing to point a microphone at him while he rants. When that day finally comes, then he'll find another boogey man to blame all of society's ills on, and suddenly people will start listening again. Just like he moved on from rap music to video games.
I don't think for a second that JT really thinks games drive people crazy. I think he thinks it's his only meal ticket. He's a lawyer, and being a lawyer is all about arguing for something vehemently that you don't necessarily agree with at all. While JT may be crazy, and most of his statements do give that impression, his fundamental motivation is probably greed rather than a distorted view of reality.
Parent
Re:Seriously, what is it? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, because before video games, rap music was to blame for society's ills. And before that, pornography. Jack Thompson tilted at both of these windmills before he found his bete noir in video games.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actual quote from complaint (Score:4, Informative)
You know the legal system is broken... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:You know the legal system is broken... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
it's b0rken. (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure it's broken. He's a vexatious litigant and a disgrace to the profession; he should be disallowed from filing lawsuits without explicit permission of the courts. That's it. Problem solved.
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Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Even if they all got thrown out of court without complications, there is still a heavy cost incurred to society as everyone involved has to waste their time listening to this bitter man's empty threats. I don't know about you, but I have more important things to do in life than sit around in court every time some jackass disagrees with my opinions.
adding slashdot to the suit (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
-Doom
-Texas Chainsaw Massacre (The Video Game)
-Resident Evil 4
-Gears of War
Each of these games have chainsaws in them, and according to JT, you can become quite skilled at using weapons in real life if you practice using them in the game. So after playing these games, you should be a great chainsaw murderer! Good luck!
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o.O (Score:4, Insightful)
If I were a lawyer I'd be deeply offended by that complaint. Lord help us if Jack ever writes a biblical commentary.
i'm glad... (Score:5, Insightful)
THe best thing to ever happen in the favor of gamers was Jack's soap box jump within hours of Vtech. Blaming games, and saying Cho never would NEVER have "learned to enjoy killing withoutplaying violent video games". Only to later find out, that Cho, well never really played games. Maybe mine sweaper to pass some boring class time.
He made the biggest fool of himself and lost all credibility he had. Jack's an empty shell and a nobody now. While someone else will eventually take his place in the crusade, gamers everywhere can comfortably play games without scrutiny.
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You're absolutely right. I was sure that they would find Counterstrike or some similar game on his computer, simply because he was an engineering college student, and Jack would
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Jack took a chance and lost.
Expecting male college student to play nowadays is about as likely as them drinking (ie: very high).
He thought that such a loner would be a gamer and i
How Jack's mind works. (Score:2, Interesting)
To us, we may see this user's comment that that Jack should be shot for attempting to exploit the tragedy as the hyperbole that it is. To Jack though, this is potentially a trained killer making a threat, which is ridiculous
Smoking Crack (Score:4, Funny)
Don't mind me, I'm just rambling...
Badge of Honor (Score:5, Funny)
Hilarious (Score:3)
Hey, Jack, (Score:3, Interesting)
If video games really (Score:2, Insightful)
I said it on Kotaku and I'll say it here... (Score:3, Funny)
Ban Phoenix Wright! (Score:4, Insightful)
It is clear to any right-thinking person that these so-called "games" are in fact Lawyer Simulations. Thanks to their brutal desensitization we are in danger of creating an entire generation of Jack Thompsons.
Please, think of the children.
-T.
Re: (Score:2)
Wait a second. Biting the hand that feeds? (Score:2)
I'd be very interested in seeing if anyone could get comments from anyone at the Florida Bar regarding Mr. Thompson, let alone this suit. I'm pretty sure hilarity would ensue.
Re:Um... (Score:5, Funny)
Declaring yourself an expert is easy, I love it!
Parent