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Supreme Court declares video games as protected speech


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#1 Ashfire908

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Posted June 27 2011 - 04:15 PM

Well it finally happened. The United States of America Supreme Court ruled the California law for regulating video games was unconstitutional, and that they are protected under the First Amendment. Video games are now a protected form of free speech! Cue the celebration!

News article: http://www.escapistm...r-of-Videogames
Full Supreme Court decision: http://www.supremeco...pdf/08-1448.pdf
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#2 Ghil

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Posted June 27 2011 - 07:03 PM

that is awesome news! thanks for sharing :)

#3 Provi

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Posted June 28 2011 - 10:31 PM

Can someone fill me in on the details here_

Does this mean that parents cannot stop their kids from playing any games no matter how old they are_

#4 Ashfire908

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Posted June 29 2011 - 08:15 AM

Provi said:

Can someone fill me in on the details here_

Does this mean that parents cannot stop their kids from playing any games no matter how old they are_
No. The result is that the government can't regulate the sale of games to minors (as it's covered under the first amendment), though it's much more than that. I'd recommend that you go read the linked article and other news articles on it, other places go over fairly good (except FOX News, the article I saw from them was basically them complaining about violent games corrupting our youth not being restricted and whatnot). I'll write a summary at some point today with what (I think) it means (I'm no expert lawyer or analyst but I'll do my best). Failing that, I'll shamelessly copy/paste a summary from somewhere (with attribution of course).
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#5 Ashfire908

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Posted June 29 2011 - 03:38 PM

Ok, here goes. (I only just started hearing about this a few weeks ago and only saw the details Monday, so feel free to correct me if I messed up)

So California tried to pass a law making it a felony to sell violent video games to people under the age of 18. While that doesn't sound bad, the law basically demonized video games. It singled them out from other media (movies, tv, books, etc), put them on the same level as porn and guns, and banned games that are "violent" and "deviant" (all in an extremely broad manner). Without a totally solid definition, one could effectively censor games by calling them violent and deviant, and ban them. You can easily see how this could limit free speech and violate the First Amendment.

It was previously declared unconstitutional by two different courts, and then last year the Supreme Court agreed to take the case (which was unusual). After hearing arguments in 2010, on Monday (6-27-2011) they declared the law unconstitutional as it violated the First Amendment (at a vote of 7-2).

This did much more than say that you can't ban the sales of 'violent' video games. It said that video games had the same protection under the First Amendment that other media was given. This gave video games the same legitimacy as movies, books, plays, etc, and essentially declared that games are, in fact, art. The implications of this are vast and wide, although the effects of this may not be felt for some time.

Provi said:

Does this mean that parents cannot stop their kids from playing any games no matter how old they are_
None of this prevent parents from taking responsibility for what their kids buy and play. In fact, it encourages the opposite. I imagine that people over 18 can still go buy and play whatever game they want though.
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#6 RedVan

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Posted June 30 2011 - 05:53 AM

Ashfire908 said:

Provi said:

Does this mean that parents cannot stop their kids from playing any games no matter how old they are_
None of this prevent parents from taking responsibility for what their kids buy and play. In fact, it encourages the opposite. I imagine that people over 18 can still go buy and play whatever game they want though.

Parents are responsible for training their children to become good, moral citizens.  If a parent deems a video game as inappropriate, they should always have the right to restrict their children from playing it.

Of course, just telling a kid "no" will make them want to do it more... so, that's where good parenting techniques need to come in...

#7 Provi

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Posted July 02 2011 - 01:53 PM

Wow, thanks for clearing that up guys.

I'll bet one of the judges is a closet gamer and added it to the priority list. ;)

#8 DarkS7ar

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Posted July 05 2011 - 02:14 PM

I'm glad you brought this to us Ash, I think my friends on the western sea born will rest easy now. This has been one of the bigger topics between us gamers that has jumped between Xbl, PSN and regular old PC. I'm glad its over :)

Provi said:

Wow, thanks for clearing that up guys.

I'll bet one of the judges is a closet gamer and added it to the priority list. ;)


I think this goes into "The world my never know" File Seeing as how if this sort of information was leaked there is no doubt in my mind that FOX News would try to get this man fired.
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