Posts Tagged ‘jack thompson’
US Supreme Court Declines Thompson’s Appeal
Someday in the future grandparents will gather their children’s children close around a glowing LED and regale them with tales of the gaming boogeyman, Jack Thompson. Every evening he swooped out into the night and devoured precious copies of video games and consoles, leaving a grim pallor of boredom in his wake. Yet one noble judge slew the beast with a flaming pen of justice.
Unfortunately the dark forces of the American legal system permit even the most insidious of individuals some hope of redemption. Jack Thompson was disbarred for life from the Florida bar association after a long and illustrious career of harassment, questionable tactics and paranoia. Unsurprisingly he vowed to fight this decision from the very beginning, but now there’s finally a capstone on this chapter of the story.
Today the US Supreme Court was given the option of hearing Thompson’s case, which they ultimately declined. Thus ends any recourse Jack Thompson has of practicing law again short of passing the bar exam in a different state.
Thompson Gets Huffy Over Veto
Did you think that the veto of gaming nemesis Jack Thompson’s pet bill would go unresponded to? Though in a sense I despise the man and his woefully ignorant and ideologically flawed purpose, I have to admit a certain fondness for the ex-lawyer, because he always makes for interesting stories.
Thompson has written a letter to Utah governor Jon Huntsman and as usual his prose shows the complete disrespect and harsh invective characteristic of someone who operates with the same emotional maturity as a child convinced that everyone is out to get him.
One of the very first things he does is insult the governor by chastising him for not giving Rep. Mike Morley a chance to alleviate his concerns before vetoing the bill. He follows this up with a shot accusing the governor of “not wanting to be confused by the facts” and immediately shows his own confusion by stating that neither the film or game industries can stop using the ratings system. A quick glance at the ESRB’s webpage informs me that the ratings system is entirely voluntary, although many retailers and console makers will only affiliate themselves with games that have been rated.
Finally Thompson attempts to punch up his arguments by including a bit of wisdom from a revolutionary-era writer before asserting that the massacre in Germany and similar incidents are directly caused by video games, instead of easy access to firearms for mentally unstable individuals.
(Thanks to GamePolitics for providing the full letter)
Utah Governor Vetoes Controversial Bill
Though Jack Thompson might have lost his ability to directly hassle the video game industry, his disbarment hasn’t completely stopped him from doing everything he can to eliminate the evils of video games from the world. Most recently he helped author a bill that was introduced to Utah legislation that proposed amendments to the ‘Truth in Advertising’ act.
It passed the House and Senate but the mewling, newly birthed bill was struck dead by a veto from Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (R). Speculation ranged from the Governor caving to public pressure from an email campaign started by gamers urging him to veto the bill to pressure from retailers.
Huntsman gave several reasons for his veto. He was concerned with the eventual revoking of this law, citing that although it had a noble aim, its incredibly broad language meant that it would quickly be struck down as unconstitutional. The Governor also revealed that in his discussions with members of the industries most affected they said that instead of risking liability for inappropriately labeled content they would simply stop issuing their products any sort of rating altogether. Huntsman pointed out that these labels are an important guide for parents.
Thompson Claims God Caused Take-Two Stock Drop
Jack Thompson – our favorite disbarred lawyer – will never rest, it seems. The attorney, who was recently permanently disbarred, last year bought stock in Take Two to lead a stockholder revolt against chairman Strauss Zelnick, who he compared to a young Hitler. However, that’s not all: Thompson’s email exchange with GamePolitics has been disclosed, where he claims that God – yes, God Himself – was responsible for Take-Two’s stock dropping in value by 35% in the past year.
And he also condemns Zelnick to an “eternity of punishment… unless he repents and accepts Christ.” The first email is below; hit the jump for the full exchange.
From: Jack Thompson
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 6:44 AM
To: Dennis McCauley
Subject: Spin this, Strauss…GOD STRIKES TAKE-TWO DOWN
Take-Two dropped $2.35 to $9.72 in extended trading after the announcement and fell as low as $9.60. The shares… have declined 35 percent this year. The results contrast with comments Zelnick made in an interview on Nov. 3, when he said sales of the company’s video games hadn’t been hurt by the recession…
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Jack Thompson “I’m Being Watched”
You thought he was gone for good, didn’t you? The eccentric, anti-game lawyer, Jack Thompson has made headlines once again. Anyone who knows Jack Thompson, or even anyone who knows of him, will tell you 
that simply disbarring him wont keep him quiet. There are plenty of issues with non-legal nature that he can over react to. Like being spied on.
“When I went to the Ferguson Federal Courthouse today, the Deputy Marshals were waiting for me because they clearly knew I was coming. The black binder that contains alleged “threats” was opened to my page, featuring two pictures of me, and with the explanation, read to me by the Deputy, that I am to be escorted because I am about to be disbarred, because I have filed lawsuits that have been dismissed, and because I allegedly wrote inappropriate letters to judges. By all means, let’s round up half of the United States’ population including all Members of Congress, why don’t we.
The fact that this multi-page binder was already opened up to my page as I walked through the front door suggests surveillance by some means by the US Marshal. There have been other bits of evidence suggesting this surveillance, but this is the clincher. The most likely means of doing so are my cell phone use by satellite monitoring, land line phone taps, and/or taps on my home computer.”
Why he assumes that “they” would be tapping into his various means of communication is beyond me. Unless he is secretly suing Rockstar via cell phone it seems like a major waste of resources. Besides, chances are most of his phone calls go along these lines: “Did you hear that they had the nerve to disbar me?…. oh, you saw it on the internet too?”
I doubt this is the last we’ll hear of the notorious Thompson, and I anticipate he will find some type of “legitimate” way of attacking Rockstar, or any other game developer he dislikes. For now though, this should be all we hear out of him for the time being.
Tags: jack thompson