VSDA late last week continued its battle against a Wash. State vi...
VSDA late last week continued its battle against a Wash. State videogame law that would prevent stores from renting or selling titles that depicted violence toward law enforcement officers. In oral arguments presented to U.S. Dist. Court Seattle, Judge…
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Robert Lasnik, VSDA attorneys again claimed that the law violated the First Amendment. “Violent speech has been given full protection of the Constitution, whether it is in a videogame or on a TV show,” argued attorney Paul Smith. The VSDA and other critics of the Video Game Violence Law, as well as the law’s supporters, asked Lasnik to grant summary judgment in the case. The judge asked the law’s proponents why only violent videogames were to be regulated -- as opposed to movies and other forms of entertainment -- and was told that because games were interactive they were more harmful to young people. Lasnik declined to rule from the bench, saying he needed time to evaluate a complex area of the law in a case that might break new ground, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. Retailers that violate the law are subject to fines as high as $500. Wash. Gov. Gary Locke (D) signed the legislation last year, but the VSDA, Entertainment Software Assn. (then called the Interactive Digital Software Assn.) and other groups quickly and successfully fought for a preliminary injunction against enforcement until the court ruled on its constitutionality (CED May 22/03 p3).