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Breaking: Louisiana Game Bill Temporarily Blocked
by Simon Carless
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June 20, 2006
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U.S. District Judge James Brady has issued a ruling temporarily blocking the recently passed Louisiana violent game bill from being put into effect, according to local news reports from the region.
The Advocate newspaper has revealed the existence of the temporary injunction, and that a hearing for a permanent injunction against the bill is set for June 27 in Baton Rouge. The measure proposed by the Louisiana-specific HB 1381, which was drafted with the help of controversial Florida attorney and anti-game activist Jack Thompson, allows a judge to rule on whether or not a video game meets established criteria for being inappropriate for minors and be subsequently pulled from store shelves.
A person found guilty of selling such a game to a minor would face fines ranging from $100 to $2,000, plus a prison term of up to one year. The lawsuit against the bill is being led by video game trade associations the ESA and the EMA, and Bo Andersen, president of Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA), commented when the bill was signed: "Despite what the legislature has been told, the Louisiana video game restriction law is not unique -- a very similar measure was passed in Michigan and promptly overturned in federal court."
It appears that the Louisiana bill may be in the process of meeting the same fate, and site GamePolitics.com has a copy of the full ESA/EMA complaint [.PDF] against the bill, which charges, among other things, that: "The Act is rife with unconstitutionally vague terms which fail to give reasonable notice of which conduct is prohibited."
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