Robert found the text of the opinion, which is here: http://pacer.moed.uscourts.gov/opinions/INTERACTIVE_DIGITAL_SOFTWARE_ASSOC_V_ST_LOUIS_COUNTY-SNL-36.PDF Two excerpts: >This Court reviewed four different video games, and found no conveyance of >ideas, expression, or anything else that could possibly amount to speech. >The Court finds that video games have more in common with board games and >sports than they do with motion pictures... The Court has trouble seeing >how an ordinary game with no First Amendment protection, can suddenly >become expressive when technology is used to present it in "video" form. >The Court finds that plaintiffs failed to meet this burden of showing that >video games are a protected form of speech under the First Amendment. >However, even if plaintiffs could establish that video games are a form of >expression, their constitutional argument still fails. Previous Politech messages: "Appeals courts rule on violent arcade games (YES), anonymity (NO)" http://www.politechbot.com/p-01433.html "Sell 'violent' video games to a teenager, go to jail" http://www.politechbot.com/p-03238.html -Declan --- From: "Robert Helmer" <roberthelmerat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Vid Games and First Amendment Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 11:29:42 -0500 Declan, thought you might be interested that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that the federal court in St. Louis has ruled that "video games are not free speech." What follows are a few paragraphs from the story and the link to St/ Louis Today, one of the Post-Dispatch's web sites. Bob Helmer Daily Rotation http://www.dailyrotation.com Shell Extension City http://www.shellcity.net St. Louis, Missouri Officials surprised by ruling on violent video games By Eric Stern Of the Post-Dispatch 04/29/2002 08:59 PM Two years ago, St. Louis County wanted to add teeth to the industry's rating system by making it illegal to sell sexually explicit and violent video games to minors without parental consent. So, the county passed a law. As expected, it got sued by video game makers, but last week, it unexpectedly won an initial ruling in federal court. Now the county is trying to figure out what to do next. Should it enforce a law that one federal court has ruled unconstitutional? Should it spend more time and money defending the law, maybe all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, against an industry that had $6 billion in sales last year? Or should it try to reach a settlement? Despite a ruling in a different federal circuit, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh last week said video games are not free speech and ruled that the county has a compelling interest to protect the physical and emotional health of children. He rejected the video game industry's attempt to throw out the ordinance, and the case is heading to trial. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/6F953FEE16C0CE4B86256BAB000CFBE7?OpenDocument&Headline=Officials%20surprised%20by%20ruling%20on%20violent%20video%20games ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign this pro-therapeutic cloning petition: http://www.franklinsociety.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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