Movie makers, actors, comic book authors, and writers all rallied around the video game industry Friday, urging the Supreme Court to uphold the unconstitutionality of a California law that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors.
"The case California makes against video games is one familiar to the comic book industry, which was nearly destroyed by government attempts at regulation in the 1950s," said Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, after filing a "friend of the court" brief with the Supreme Court Friday.
"Then, as now, moral crusaders claimed that popular new media containing depictions of violence were detrimental to our youth," he said. "Then, as now, pseudo-science was used to back such claims. Those claims weren’t true in the 1950s, and they aren’t true now."
The comic book group along with a coalition that includes the Motion Picture Association of America, the Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, and Lucasfilm Ltd, all argue that the California law is not only unconstitutional and a violation of First Amendment rights, but that it would affect not just video games … but the entertainment industry as a whole.
If the Supreme Court were to uphold California’s statute, it would have a "dramatic chilling effect on the motion picture industry," the brief from the film and TV coalition stated.
Meanwhile, the comic book group said in its filing that the law "would undermine more First Amendment principles in a single case than any decision in living memory."
The case before the high court is Arnold Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Association. (Yes, that Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
At issue is a state law, signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2005, that banned the sale or rental of violent video games to minors while also giving the government the right to determine which games are violent.
The law — blocked by the U.S. District Court in 2006 before it took effect — provided civil penalties of up to $1,000 for violations. The state of California appealed the ruling, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared the law unconstitutional.
California was not to be deterred. It is now is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the lower-court ruling and allow the law to go into effect.
This is the first time that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on any of the state laws attempting to ban certain video games. Until now, lower courts have struck down these kinds of laws. Oral arguments are scheduled to take place on Nov. 2.
Friday was the last day in which "friend of the court" briefs could be filed in the case. The briefs allow various parties to bring relevant information and arguments to the attention of the Supreme Court judges.
On Friday, the Media Coalition — which includes the Recording Industry Association of America and Association of American Publishers — also filed a brief.
"There is no First Amendment exception for violent speech in books, movies, music, or other mediums, and we believe that the Supreme Court should not open the door to a new category of unprotected speech for video games or otherwise," said David Horowitz, executive director of the Media Coalition.
For a summary of California's arguments, check out this article from game blog Kotaku.com. In outlining the state's case, writer Stephen Totilo explains, "California argues that the video game industry has failed to protect minors and that it has both a duty and the legal right to do so by making it illegal to sell certain types of extremely violent games to kids."
Earlier this month, the Entertainment Software Association (which represents the video game industry) filed its own brief, arguing that that there are less-restrictive means of ensuring that the video games kids play are parent-approved. It pointed to the voluntary and widely used Entertainment Software Rating Board system that already has a ratings system in place for video games.
Meanwhile, the ESA argued that video games should be considered an art form like movies, books and music, and thus should enjoy the same First Amendment protections against censorship.
The organization also argued that it would be inappropriate and highly problematic to have the government — rather than parents —decide what games are and are not too violent or inappropriate for children.
"So many different forms of expression are considered inappropriate for minors by at least some parents," stated the ESA brief. "For example, many parents are opposed to their minor children reading classic works of American literature like 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' because of racial epithets in that book. Others object to discussions of evolution or, conversely, of creationism. Still others sincerely believe that popular works like the 'Harry Potter' series should be off limits because they celebrate a perceived pagan worldview. That does not mean a legislature could require some or all of these works to be kept in the adults only section of bookstores."
Topic: Movie makers, comic book authors rally around video games as Supreme Court heari (Read 1505 times)