VSDA, ESA sues California
UPDATE: Wants violent-videogame law stopped
By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 10/17/2005
OCT. 17 | The Video Software Dealers Association and Entertainment Software Assn. filed suit Monday against the state of California to get recently passed violent-videogame legislation declared unconstitutional.
On Oct. 7, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that bans retailers in the state from selling violent videogames to minors.
The new law, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, bans the sale or rental to anyone younger than 18 of any videogame that depicts violence and would require manufacturers to label video and computer games as “violent” if they depict killings that are “heinous, cruel or depraved.”
The VSDA has argued that retailers could be sued by anyone who believes stores are renting or selling a game to minors that should be labeled “violent” but isn’t.
"California's new law will ensure parental involvement in determining which videogames are appropriate for their children," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "I believe strongly that we must give parents the tools to help them protect their children. I will do everything in my power to preserve this new law and I urge the Attorney General to mount a vigorous defense of California's ability to prevent the sale of these games to children."
VSDA president Bo Andersen said in a statement, “Courts have consistently held that restrictions on videogames because of depictions of violence within the games violate the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. The California law is also unconstitutional because it is so imprecisely drafted that it is impossible to decipher which videogames are covered by its provisions. The law also ignores the existing video game rating system and retailers' programs to enforce those ratings in their stores.”
The VSDA and ESA filed the suit, Video Software Dealers Association vs. Schwarzenegger, in federal district court in San Jose, Calif.
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