Feature: 'Game Law: Prior Restraint The Games - A Rant'

In one of today's main Gamasutra features, and this edition of Game Law, noted video game lawyer Tom Buscaglia rants about Jack Thompson, government regulation of game content and distribution, and what the game industry can do to make itself heard. Buscaglia makes himself known forcefully in comments regarding the current legislative problems facing the game industry: "The recent efforts by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) to present the Family Entertainment Protection Act before Congress shows exactly how volatile the political situation concerning the game industry is. These extremely powerful people are advocating putting restrictions on the game industry that do not exist in film, literature, or even television. This sort of prior restraint on free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment is extraordinary and is something that should be opposed by anyone who loves or makes their living from games, regardless of their feelings about violence in games. Because even if you oppose violence in games, that sort of government regulation of the industry is really not the way to address it. So what do gamers or even most developers do about this? They complain. They whine. They praise anyone who says something that they agree with and jeer anyone who says something they don't like. But they do not organize and more importantly, the do not bother to vote. Rough estimates are that there are upwards of 145 million gamers in the United States. This number far exceeds the number of people in the Christian right or moral majority. However, those minorities vote in a block they have an excessive amount of power in the political marketplace." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, including plenty of other charged rhetoric on the state of game legislation, and what the industry should be doing about it (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).