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House bill proposes fines on retail games without ESRB ratings, prohibition of some sales to minors

Jordan Mallory — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:00:00 EST

Bill H.R.287, or the "Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act" as it will likely be more widely known, seeks to accomplish three goals: To make illegal the act of selling or renting video games that have not been evaluated by the ESRB, to legally prohibit the sale of Adults Only/Mature games to anyone under the age of 18/17 respectively, and to institute a fine not in excess of $5,000 in the event of noncompliance.

The bill's second and third provisions aside, mandating that all games be rated doesn't sound too wildly outside the scope of reason, save for the fact that the industry's current architecture supports that already. Granted, indie games that end up on Steam or other PC/Mac distribution platforms may not seek out ESRB evaluation, but any game released for any console must have an ESRB rating, as Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft will refuse licensing otherwise.

If the rest of what VGREA is attempting to accomplish sounds familiar, it's because the Supreme Court of the United States already declared such legislation unconstitutional way back in June of 2011. So, unless time is cyclical and this bill is actually what the court ruled on in 2011, the chances of this new one getting off the ground are pretty slim.

House bill proposes fines on retail games without ESRB ratings, prohibition of some sales to minors originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Events 2012: SOPA

Jordan Mallory — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:30:00 EST

The Stop Online Piracy Act, had it been successfully enacted, would have given US law enforcement agencies the ability to legally bar search engines from linking to websites that were deemed to host copyright-violating content (whatever that may be), provided said agencies were able to obtain a court order.

It also would have given law enforcement the ability to bar advertisers and e-commerce payment providers from doing business with offending websites, but the bill's real party peace was its ability to block access to infringing websites at the ISP level.

If you think that sounds oddly familiar, that's because it's essentially what The Patriots were trying to accomplish in Metal Gear Solid 2, although the bill's less clandestine methodology wouldn't have required the construction of a massive submersible aquatic fortress.

As troubling as all that sounds, internet legislation isn't really in our wheelhouse since we're a video game website and everything. Once Nintendo, Sony and EA all put their weight behind the bill, however, the issue suddenly fell under our jurisdiction and became much more complicated, especially once Microsoft, Apple and a consortium of other tech giants expressed their support.

Of course, anything that threatens the Internet's right to free speech is swiftly met by the razor-sharp blade of e-activism, with the whole of the Internet collapsing into a singularity of outrage aimed directly at the companies in support of the bill. As public objection grew, Microsoft, Apple and the other members of the Business Software Alliance rescinded their support almost immediately. Nintendo, Sony and EA followed suit shortly thereafter, though the ESA (of which they are all members) remained in support of SOPA.

Rep. Lamar Smith (who had originally authored the bill) eventually announced that he was removing the DNS-blocking portions of the legislation, making the proposed bill somewhat less insane, but still plenty dangerous. Shortly thereafter, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa cancelled a scheduled hearing and indefinitely postponed voting on SOPA, effectively placing the bill into a state of suspended animation. A similar hold was placed on SOPA's Senate sister PIPA, which sought to accomplish the same goals. It was not until both pieces of legislation had effectively been killed that ESA withdrew its support.

Events 2012: SOPA originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony responds to Congress with open letter, suggests 'Anonymous' was responsible

JC Fletcher — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:21:00 EST

In response to a letter sent to Sony by the US House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, Sony's Kazuo Hirai sent an open letter detailing Sony's "principles" in dealing with the PSN outage and Sony/SOE data leaks. The full letter has been scanned and placed on Flickr for public view.

A PlayStation Blog post summarizes the content of the letter. According to Hirai, Sony has worked under the following four principles in dealing with the issue: "Act with care and caution, " "Provide relevant information to the public when it has been verified," "Take responsibility for our obligations to our customers," and "Work with law enforcement authorities."

In addition, the letter and post provide a timeline of the attack, including this early clue: "We discovered that the intruders had planted a file on one of our Sony Online Entertainment servers named 'Anonymous' with the words 'We are Legion.'" Despite that evidence, Sony still says it has yet to identify the "individual(s) responsible for the breach." It's unclear if that means Sony does not think the hacking organization known as Anonymous was responsible or, rather, if it hasn't managed to uncover the actual identities of Anonymous' ... err, anonymous contributors.

The "Welcome Back" program was also detailed, through which Sony is offering free downloads, and free PlayStation Plus memberships (and Qriocity access for those subscribers) lasting 30 days plus the length of the PSN outage.

Sony responds to Congress with open letter, suggests 'Anonymous' was responsible originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 May 2011 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Congress sends inquiry to Sony about PSN security breach

Griffin McElroy — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST

The list of organizations Sony's going to be answering to about the PlayStation Network security breach is growing with alarming speed. The latest addition to the horde is the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, which sent a letter to executive deputy president Kazuo Hirai yesterday with a number of inquiries about the nature of the breach, as well as the company's response to its consumers' collective exposure.

The letter, which was penned by subcommittee chair and California representative Mary Bono Mack, imposes questions including why the company is unsure whether users' credit card info was taken, as well as what steps Sony's taking to prevent future breaches. We're assuming that the question of "When's the PSN coming back online, because some of us are trying to get some Portal 2 co-op Trophies over here," was omitted, as it was found to not be "governmenty" enough.

Congress sends inquiry to Sony about PSN security breach originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Former LucasArts president making Congressional bid

Griffin McElroy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:30:00 EST

Jim Ward is best known for being the no-nonsense president of LucasArts from 2004 to 2008 -- a period where the company seemed to dust itself off, and start making good games again. His claim to fame might change in the near future, however -- he's currently running to represent Arizona's 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 Congressional Election.

Ward's fairly conservative viewpoints are evident in his campaign website, but regardless of how you feel about his policies, he's got to be a staunch supporter of the gaming industry. Plus, he might just be the only person who can push legislation through mandating the re-release of Day of the Tentacle.

[Via GamePolitics]

Former LucasArts president making Congressional bid originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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House representative speaks out against 'Virtual Army Experience'

Ben Gilbert — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:15:00 EST

Ohio Democrat and US House rep Dennis Kucinich has got some serious beef with America's Army (the game, not the US Army) and the US government's "Virtual Army Experience." Billing the recruiting center-cum-arcade as a "high-tech traveling exhibit" and saying it advertises to "children as young as 13-years-old," Kucinich requested a variety of improvements be made to the experience -- for instance, not targeting the experience at people under 18 years old.

The House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton acquiesced to Mr. Kucinich's requests in monotonal agreement, matter-of-factly stating, "I support the VAE -- at the same time, I know it can be improved." To see the entire thrilling exchange play out on C-SPAN, check it out after the break.

[Via GamePolitics]

Continue reading House representative speaks out against 'Virtual Army Experience'

House representative speaks out against 'Virtual Army Experience' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Utah game retail restriction bill passes House

Griffin McElroy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:57:00 EST

HB 353, a piece of Utah legislation which enforces stricter penalties against game and film retailers who sell M-rated and R-rated content to "buyers subject to an age restriction or recommendation,' and which was authored by Rep. Mike Morley and former Miami attorney Jack Thompson, passed through the Utah House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 70 for and two against. It will now make its way to Utah's state senate -- should it pass there as well, it will go to the desk of Gov. Jon Huntsman to be signed into law, which will go into effect on January 1, 2010.

The bill passed by an overwhelming margin after a number of amendments to the legislation were approved by the House. The amendments were largely tacked on to the bill in an attempt to lower the hackles of disapproving retailers -- for instance, one addition keeps retailers from suffering the harsher penalties if an underage customer lies about his or her age when purchasing a mature product. In response, we anticipate Utah's fake mustache industry to see a threefold rise in revenue during the next fiscal year.

Utah game retail restriction bill passes House originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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