jack thompson

Dearest Children at Joystiq:

I know it's hard to take time out of your crowded schedule of blowing away humans in your virtually violent worlds, but take just a few minutes, little ones, and go read the California Civil Code and see, with your own bloodshot eyes that a private individual has a RIGHT to seize any property which poses a particular danger to him/her if it falls within the category of a public nuisance, WITHOUT a court order.

I'm a fascist? You're all tyrants. You want to pick and choose what laws are to be enforced and which are to be ignored. You claim the wonders of the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects the "right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances." I have peititioned the AG of California. The people of California have passed a law that gives every cop the RIGHT to seize these games.

If you lazy video bums don't like the law, if you cannot abide how the First Amendment has worked here, then get of your sorry rearends and change the freaking law. Don't tell me I'm a fascist. You all are the fascists--the childish goofs who can't read, won't do anything with your lives, and sit around and pontificate on laws you've never even read.

Go to Hell more quietly, please. You're not taking what is left of your generation with you.

Jack Thompson.

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

January 12, 2006

The Honorable Bill Lockyer
Attorney General
State of California
Sacramento, California Via Fax to 916-323-5341

Re: Scheduled Release on January 18, 2006, of New Cop-Killing Simulator 25 to Life

Dear Attorney General Lockyer:

Last year United States Senator Charles Schumer sounded the alarm that Eidos, Inc., located in San Francisco County, was set to release a violent “cop-killing” video game entitled 25 to Life. Senator Schumer called for the game not to be released.

Last year I appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes regarding the murder in Alabama of two policemen and a dispatcher by a teen who trained on the cop-killing simulator Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It appears that 25 to Life may be even worse in a number of regards than that Rockstar murder simulator linked to numerous murders. It is clear that this cop-killing simulator, 25 to Life, paints a bulls eye on the back of every law enforcement officer in California and across the country.

In the game, you can take the role of a gang member and rehearse, interactively, various methods of exterminating police officers for hours. The American Psychological Association in August of 2005 found that such “games” actually lead to increased aggression and violence.

It is just as obvious that this Mature-rated game will be widely sold to minors, who are particularly vulnerable, brain scans and other scientific/medical findings show, to copycatting the interactive violence contained therein. This is precisely why the Department of Defense uses these games to break down the inhibition to kill of new recruits.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman, with whose staff I have worked for years on this issue, proved this past December that these violent, Mature-rated games are sold to kids as young as nine years of age. This poses a particularly pernicious public safety hazard, as teenaged brains process this interactive violence in the sectors of the brain that lead to copycatting. Brain scan studies at Harvard prove this. They prove the danger.

As you know, this past year, you and a number of California District Attorneys used the public nuisance statutes in California to enjoin the hazardous practices of AutoZone. Eidos, Inc., poses just as great a public nuisance if it releases 25 to Life. California Civil Code Section 3479, et sequitur, gives you, as Attorney General of the State of California, all the authority you need to go into court on an emergency basis and enjoin the imminent release of 25 to Life. In my opinion, you must do just that.

I have available to you renowned experts, many of whom have testified before the United States Congress on the video game copycatting phenomenon, who can prove to a California court that this cop-killing simulator does in fact pose a demonstrable threat to the state’s law enforcement officers and is thus, by any definition, a “public nuisance.”

The video game industry’s hired guns have enjoined the enforcement of the video game law authored by Assemblyman Yee and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger. If your nuisance suit is successful, they will wish they had not done that, as then the entire nation will see that nuisance laws already on the books and held constitutional are more than adequate to stop the sale of violent, mature-rated video games to minors.

Your lawsuit to enjoin this nuisance could state as follows: The game, 25 to Life, is rated “M” (for mature) because it contains, as indicated by the label on the game itself “intense violence.” The industry, including Eidos, Inc., will not effectively restrict, however, the sale of this Mature-rated game only to adults. Indeed, Eidos, through the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) of which it is a member, has authorized ESA to assert in its court challenge to California’s video game law, that children have a constitutional “right” to buy mature-rated video games. In fact, such games are being marketed and sold to children through California. 25 to Life, a cop-killing simulator, will be no exception—by design. A company that will not restrict the sales of a Mature-rated game to adults only is engaged in, by definition, a public nuisance that constitutes a public safety hazard.

The foregoing is the reasoning behind a suit you could file. It is irrefutable. The need for it is inescapable.

Additionally, please know that California Civil Code Section 3495 enables and authorizes each and every law enforcement officer to walk into any video game store, without a court order, to seize and destroy each and every copy of 25 to Life. California law treats this as acceptable “abatement” of a public nuisance by parties particularly endangered by such a nuisance.

In the next six days I intend to take to the public airwaves in California, and to use other means, to encourage all law enforcement officers in California to in fact go into video game stores and seize all copies of 25 to Life.

Please contact me immediately in order that 25 to Life will never see the light of day. Lives will be saved if you act. Lives will be lost if you do not.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Copies: US Senators Lieberman, Clinton, Santorum, Schumer
Various Law Enforcement Organizations
Media
Others

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

January 12, 2006

The Honorable Bill Lockyer
Attorney General
State of California
Sacramento, California Via Fax to 916-323-5341

Re: Scheduled Release on January 18, 2006, of New Cop-Killing Simulator 25 to Life

Dear Attorney General Lockyer:

Last year United States Senator Charles Schumer sounded the alarm that Eidos, Inc., located in San Francisco County, was set to release a violent “cop-killing” video game entitled 25 to Life. Senator Schumer called for the game not to be released.

Last year I appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes regarding the murder in Alabama of two policemen and a dispatcher by a teen who trained on the cop-killing simulator Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It appears that 25 to Life may be even worse in a number of regards than that Rockstar murder simulator linked to numerous murders. It is clear that this cop-killing simulator, 25 to Life, paints a bulls eye on the back of every law enforcement officer in California and across the country.

In the game, you can take the role of a gang member and rehearse, interactively, various methods of exterminating police officers for hours. The American Psychological Association in August of 2005 found that such “games” actually lead to increased aggression and violence.

It is just as obvious that this Mature-rated game will be widely sold to minors, who are particularly vulnerable, brain scans and other scientific/medical findings show, to copycatting the interactive violence contained therein. This is precisely why the Department of Defense uses these games to break down the inhibition to kill of new recruits.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman, with whose staff I have worked for years on this issue, proved this past December that these violent, Mature-rated games are sold to kids as young as nine years of age. This poses a particularly pernicious public safety hazard, as teenaged brains process this interactive violence in the sectors of the brain that lead to copycatting. Brain scan studies at Harvard prove this. They prove the danger.

As you know, this past year, you and a number of California District Attorneys used the public nuisance statutes in California to enjoin the hazardous practices of AutoZone. Eidos, Inc., poses just as great a public nuisance if it releases 25 to Life. California Civil Code Section 3479, et sequitur, gives you, as Attorney General of the State of California, all the authority you need to go into court on an emergency basis and enjoin the imminent release of 25 to Life. In my opinion, you must do just that.

I have available to you renowned experts, many of whom have testified before the United States Congress on the video game copycatting phenomenon, who can prove to a California court that this cop-killing simulator does in fact pose a demonstrable threat to the state’s law enforcement officers and is thus, by any definition, a “public nuisance.”

The video game industry’s hired guns have enjoined the enforcement of the video game law authored by Assemblyman Yee and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger. If your nuisance suit is successful, they will wish they had not done that, as then the entire nation will see that nuisance laws already on the books and held constitutional are more than adequate to stop the sale of violent, mature-rated video games to minors.

Your lawsuit to enjoin this nuisance could state as follows: The game, 25 to Life, is rated “M” (for mature) because it contains, as indicated by the label on the game itself “intense violence.” The industry, including Eidos, Inc., will not effectively restrict, however, the sale of this Mature-rated game only to adults. Indeed, Eidos, through the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) of which it is a member, has authorized ESA to assert in its court challenge to California’s video game law, that children have a constitutional “right” to buy mature-rated video games. In fact, such games are being marketed and sold to children through California. 25 to Life, a cop-killing simulator, will be no exception—by design. A company that will not restrict the sales of a Mature-rated game to adults only is engaged in, by definition, a public nuisance that constitutes a public safety hazard.

The foregoing is the reasoning behind a suit you could file. It is irrefutable. The need for it is inescapable.

Additionally, please know that California Civil Code Section 3495 enables and authorizes each and every law enforcement officer to walk into any video game store, without a court order, to seize and destroy each and every copy of 25 to Life. California law treats this as acceptable “abatement” of a public nuisance by parties particularly endangered by such a nuisance.

In the next six days I intend to take to the public airwaves in California, and to use other means, to encourage all law enforcement officers in California to in fact go into video game stores and seize all copies of 25 to Life.

Please contact me immediately in order that 25 to Life will never see the light of day. Lives will be saved if you act. Lives will be lost if you do not.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Copies: US Senators Lieberman, Clinton, Santorum, Schumer
Various Law Enforcement Organizations
Media
Others

Ignore this, then:

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

January 12, 2006

His Excellency Yuri Ushakov
Russian Federation Ambassador to the United States
Embassy of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. Via email and fax to 202-298-5735

Re: Knife Attack in Moscow Synagogue Allegedly Inspired by Violent American Video Game, Postal 2

Dear Ambassador Ushakov:

I am an expert, recognized as such in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, and elsewhere, as to the disturbing nexus between violent video game play and real-world violence.

I have been repeatedly interviewed as to this nexus by the BBC and by major news media in this country.

As you know, a young person in Moscow just went on a knifing spree, allegedly inspired to do so by the incredibly violent PC video game, Postal 2.

In this game, by the way, a player can place his virtual gun into the anus of a cat to use the feline as a silencer. That is how depraved is Vince Desi, the head of the company that makes this game. He is a sociopath.

This game is being distributed around the world by Mr. Desi’s US company, Running with Scissors, whose corporate slogan is “To kill or not to kill? What a stupid question.”

We have had a large number of killings in this country linked by law enforcement to these types of murder simulation games. Our US Defense Department actually uses virtual reality killing simulators like this to break down the inhibition of new recruits to kill, so of course it has this same effect on civilians.

Running with Scissors has recently entered into an arrangement whereby it can distribute its murder simulators via the Internet, thereby bypassing various nations’ restrictions on the distribution of such harmful material to minors. The Russian Federation must stop this practice.

I am a Republican who can tell you that United States President George W. Bush has direct financial ties to the violent video game industry—such as Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., through massive campaign contributions by the political lobbying firm of Blank Rome—so there is a collaboration of sorts between the US government and the violent video game industry to export this dangerous garbage around the globe. In fact, our Defense Department has actually subsidized the creation of some of these virtual reality killing games at an agency known as the Institute for Creative Technologies. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is this program’s chief enthusiast.

I appeared on ABC World News Tonight blowing the whistle on this nonsense, which also extensively involves the Sony Corporation.

Please feel free to contact me for additional information as soon as possible. I think at the very least the Russian Federation should lodge a formal protest with the United States government regarding the importation of Postal 2 and the mayhem at the Moscow synagogue that it may very well have caused.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be involved in efforts, in the next six days, to stop the game's release. We'll see. Even if not stopped, when somebody uses the game for the actual rehearsal for killing cops, then the trap for Eidos, with all the unheeded warnings, will have been set. Jack Thompson

Why doesn't one of you go google "stockholder derivative action" and then you'll know what this is about. I'm crazy like a fox. Duh. Jack Thompson

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

December 22, 2005

The Honorable Eliot Spitzer
Attorney General, State of New York
120 Broadway
New York City, New York 10271 Via Fax to 212-416-8139

Re: Distribution of Sexual Material Harmful to Minors by Take-Two Interactive, Inc./Rockstar Games of New York City

Dear Mr. Spitzer:

In July of this year, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., and its subsidiary Rockstar Games, both headquartered in New York City, were caught by the video game industry’s Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) with having fraudulently embedded explicit sexual material in the hyperviolent, cop-killing video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This was referred to as the “Hot Coffee mod sex scandal.”

Take-Two lied about having done this, claiming somebody else put the explici sex in the game, which patent deception prompted Senator Hillary Clinton to request an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into Take-Two’s fraud. I prepped Senator Clinton for her news conference at which she announced that request, making headlines around the globe. Subsequently, the United States House of Representatives voted by a whopping 355-21 to join with Senator Clinton in the request to the FTC.

Take-Two has a history of illegal activity, as this year it had to pay $8 million in fines to the federal Security Exchange Commission for accounting fraud. Fortune magazine this summer recounted the long history of insider trading at Take-Two.

Not surprisingly, MediaWatch named Take-Two’s Paul Eibeler, sitting right there in Manhattan this morning, “America’s Worst CEO in 2005” for his lies regarding “Hot Coffee.” A San Francisco public relations firm named Take-Two’s disastrous deceptions about what it had done in “Hot Coffee” one of its “Top Ten P.R. Blunders of 2005.”

Lost in all of this is the fact that Take-Two put explicit sex into a video game marketed and sold to minors. As soon as the ESRB verified that a) Take-Two had knowingly placed the explicit sex in the game and b) Take-Two had lied about what it had done, the game was ordered by the ESRB off store shelves and re-rated “AO”—Adults Only.
The removal and re-rating is probative of whether Take-Two distributed and conspired to distribute “sexual material harmful to minors.” Paul Eibeler personally and Take-Two corporately should be prosecuted for this criminal activity which violates New York Penal Code Section 235, et sequitur regarding the distribution of sexual material harmful to minors.

You might also want to pursue Take-Two for its fraudulent and deceptive trade practices arising out of “Hot Coffee.” After all, it marketed and sold a game that was rated “M,” when in fact it was really an “AO” game, as the ESRB action proves.

Please be further advised that the Philadelphia law firm of Blank Rome, which is the largest single lobbyist/law firm contributor to Bush-Cheney and the Republican National Committee, is the official, registered lobbyist in the US House and US Senate for Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

How’s that for Republican “family values?” Blank Rome’s Chairman, David Girard-diCarlo, raises tons of campaign contributions for his friend President Bush, and thereby buys both protection and access for Blank Rome’s clients, including scofflaw Take-Two.

I and others would appreciate hearing from you and your office by Friday, January 13, that a criminal investigation of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., has commenced. It is long overdue.

Regards, Jack Thompson


Copies: Media

Ranting? Why don't you censors provide the text of the letter and let the readers here decide? Nobody was laughing when I did this at the 1992 Time Warner shareholders meeting and persuaded the Time Warner board to pull Ice-T's "Cop Killer" from store shelves worldwide.

See, the basic method of you gamers is to ignore the successes of your opponents so as to try to marginalize them. Publish my letter here. Paul Eibeler isn't laughing. He's this close to losing his job. Jack Thompson

So, what have we here? More embedded material in a GTA game or just an alteration wholly caused by a mod? Senator Clinton and I are dying to know. Jack Thompson