Best Opinion of the Court, Evah
The practice of law is a serious business. Often, the courts deal with the lives, freedoms, and fortunes of ordinary people. It is a solemn and heavy burden to bear. And it is usually born by men of great dignity and solemnity.
So it's always fun when one gets to see a little levity, which is the case in American Amusement Machine Ass'n v. Kendrick, 244 F.3d 572, (C.A.7 ,2001).
Really, just hearing Judge Posner describe the game with the same straight faced seriousness he uses to describe the seriousness of say, affirmative action, or a liberal view of the commerce clause and its effects on the modern market, is worth the price of admission and leads to my favorite quote:
Good Times, Good times.
Until next time.
So it's always fun when one gets to see a little levity, which is the case in American Amusement Machine Ass'n v. Kendrick, 244 F.3d 572, (C.A.7 ,2001).
Really, just hearing Judge Posner describe the game with the same straight faced seriousness he uses to describe the seriousness of say, affirmative action, or a liberal view of the commerce clause and its effects on the modern market, is worth the price of admission and leads to my favorite quote:
Zombies are supernatural beings, therefore difficult to kill. Repeated shots are necessary to stop them...Really? And we're taking judicial notice of this fact, Hmm? Any way, for those with out the access to the case, or maybe just lacking in the will to find it, here is my favorite bit:
"Most of the video games in the record of this case, games that the City believes violate its ordinances, are stories. Take once again “The House of the Dead.” The player is armed with a gun-most fortunately, because he is being assailed by a seemingly unending succession of hideous axe-wielding zombies, the living dead conjured back to life by voodoo. The zombies have already knocked down and wounded several people, who are pleading pitiably for help; and one of the player's duties is to protect those unfortunates from renewed assaults by the zombies. His main task, however, is self-defense. Zombies are supernatural beings, therefore difficult to kill. Repeated shots are necessary to stop them as they rush headlong toward the player. He must not only be alert to the appearance of zombies from any quarter; he must be assiduous about reloading his gun periodically, lest he be overwhelmed by the rush of the zombies when his gun is empty.
Good Times, Good times.
Until next time.
Labels: Law, video games
posted by Lost in The World at
1:34 PM
2 Comments:
What did you think of the ruling on that? Not certain I agree with it. I mean, (logical infallacy incoming) applying the same logic to alcohol gives you no minimum age for alcohol consumption. Isn't the point of age limits to protect those who may not be mature enough to handle the responsibilities thereof from doing something that could potentially endanger their life and/or well-being?
By
Christina, at 1:15 PM
Welcome back to the blog, first off.
Second, Nope I'm with Posner on this one. In an unrecorded portion of the opinion the judge points out that there is little evidence to suggest that violent VGs are bad for kids, and what evidence there is shows only a correlation between violent games, and violence, not causation.
Many things are correlated, Ice cream sales and drowning deaths. The number of churches and crime rates, etc. But this doesn't prove causation.
Also, there is the idea that violence is not in itself bad, but that's too time intensive for me to go into, I think there was a *Boundless* article on it once...
By
Lost in The World, at 10:23 AM
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