Jack Thompson has been teasing a planned lawsuit which he says will be announced Monday.

On Friday GP was treated to a subject-line only e-mail which read, "So, Dennis, you going to my big news conference Monday?"

Not if you don't tell me where it is, Jack.

Later, GP and GameSpot received a similar message, saying only, "Big news conference by Jack Thompson Monday. Hooah!"

Hooah, indeed. This morning the anti-game activist dropped a little more news in the comments section of GP's The Political Game column on Joystiq. Thompson wrote:

"On Monday, September 25, Thompson will journey to another state and announce, with his co-counsel, the filing of what will likely prove to be hugely significant wrongful death action against Sony and Take-Two..."

So, it's a GTA case...
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You can't get double-talk cheaper, anywhere.

Wal-mart, that bastion of low prices - and low wages - appears to be doing the corporate P.R. two-step in light of its decision to stop pre-order sales of Bully from its web store, Wal-mart.com. The move came shortly after controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson filed suit against the giant retailer and Bully publisher Take-Two Interactive in a Florida court on Wednesday.

The suit and the pulling of the game are not related, according to a Wal-mart P.R. spokesman, who claims that the mega-retailer coincidentally just happened to implement a policy not to pre-sell unrated (or RP for "rating pending") games on the same day that Thompson's Florida case was filed. GP's very limited review of Wal-mart's website this morning, however, quickly turned up several such games for sale, including Crackdown, Phantasy Star Universe, and Justice League Heroes.
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Like many gamers, controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson is hoping for a sneak peek at Bully.

Thompson's interest in the much-discussed game however, is hardly that of a fan.

In a lengthy, rambling suit filed earlier today with the Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Thompson has demanded that publisher Take-Two Interactive supply him with a copy of Bully "so that its content can be fairly assessed by someone, prior to its commercial release, other than a) a hand-picked member of the media and b) the ESRB with its history of, at best, ineptitude in analyzing the content of Take-Two products... If Bully is indeed safe for children's play, then petitioner (Thompson) will be the first to say so."

The request that a game publisher supply a multi-million dollar development project to an outside source for evaluation is unprecedented, and is certain be turned down, if not ignored completely. Attorneys for Take-Two will no doubt move for a dismissal of Thompson's suit.
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It seems that working stiffs want their slice of the video game industry's multi-billion dollar pie, too.

Publishing monolith EA, of course, has already settled a pair of class-action law suits filed by over-crunched development staff. Activision is dealing with a similar claim.

Now, via Game Daily, comes word that massive retailer GameStop faces an angry mob of its own.

A half-dozen store managers in Louisiana have filed a class-action lawsuit, claiming that they should be eligible for overtime pay. The workers accuse GameStop of violating requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Along with that lawsuit, would you like to pre-order any upcoming games?
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Controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson appears to be burning bridges in Louisiana, the state where he has enjoyed the most success to date in his long-standing crusade against violent video games.

A series of e-mails forwarded to GamePolitics by Thompson detail a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the office of Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. Foti is a named defendant in ESA/EMA vs. Foti, the video game industry's constitutional challenge to the state's recently-passed video game law.
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Video game legislation paid off for Oklahoma Rep. Fred Morgan - not.

Morgan, the driving force behind Oklahoma's video game violence law, lost big - BIG - in yesterday's Oklahoma primaries. With his days in the Oklahoma House of Representatives coming to a close due to term limits, Morgan decided to throw his hat into the ring for a seat in Congress from Oklahoma's 5th District.

His campaign didn't do especially well at fund-raising, however, and fared even worse at the polls. Morgan came in 5th among six Republican candidates, attracting an anemic 9% of the primary vote.

Although Morgan touted his video game bill on his campaign's website, the issue and/or the candidate apparently failed to resonate with Oklahoma's Republican voters.

The state's video game law remains the subject of a lawsuit brought by the video game industry.

For all GamePolitics coverage of Oklahoma's video game law, click here.

The next game - legislating politician facing a major primary challenge is Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. And his campaign has major problems as well.

Even though he is currently embroiled in a First Amendment battle with the video game industry, Minnesota's Attorney General Mike Hatch - unlike some other high profile critics we could mention - is a big enough man to admit that games are speech. Just one problem, though - he finds them to be a "worthless, disgusting" variety of speech.

Hatch filed a memorandum earlier this week with the Federal District Court in Minneapolis, There, the video game industry is seeking to have Minnesota's "fine the buyer" law overturned on constitutional grounds. In his memorandum, Attorney General Hatch is unsparing in expressing his revulsion toward violent video games. Hatch's wording is so over-the-top, in fact, that you can almost hear him retching in the background. Check out this purple prose:

"In balancing the applicable interests in this case, the court should err on the side of protecting minors rather than protecting their limited right of access to such low value speech..."

"...the Court here must ultimately balance the State's compelling interests in protecting the psychological well-being and ethical and moral development of minors against the limited First Amendment right of minors to access speech of very low societal value..."

"...there may be few, if any, other forms of speech, even though protected, that are of any lesser societal value than repulsive video games depicting the bloody slaughter of babies and animals, urination and defecation, rape, decapitation, dismemberment and disembowlment."

"...the Court should consider and weigh the societal value of the worthless, disgusting speech at issue..."

After reading Hatch's memorandum I feel so... unclean. I also confess that, even though I have written about games for more than a decade and played them for longer, I am at a loss to understand some of his points. Slaughter of babies and animals? Defecation? Rape? When? Where?

Download Attorney General Hatch's memorandum here.

T.V. newsman John Facenda died in 1984, but his deep, resonant voice lives on, thanks mainly to its use by the National Football League and the league's video unit, NFL Films.

But according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Facenda's family has filed a federal lawsuit against the league and NFL Films over the use of Facenda's rich baritone in Making of Madden 2006, a promotional video for last year's edition of the long-running pro football game published by EA Sports. The game publisher has an exclusive deal with the league for pro football video games which use NFL logos and other licensing features.

Facenda vs. NFL Films was filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Monday. The Facenda family's attorney Paul Lauricella said that the broadcaster agreed to allow the NFL to use his voice for its football highlights, but not to promote other types of businesses. The amount of damages sought by the family remains unspecified.

The Associated Press spoke with Lauricella, who claimed that Facenda's voice opened the Making of Madden 2006 and was used later in the video, which the attorney called a "30-minute commercial for the Madden game."
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Summers haven't been much fun at Take Two Interactive, of late. Last year, of course, the Hot Coffee scandal unwound itself in agonizing daily steps throughout the month of July. This summer, water cooler gossip must be equally tense around Take Two Interactive's Lower Manhattan digs.

Although last month's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on the Hot Coffee affair resulted in a mere slap on Take Two's corporate wrist, developments since then have been almost exclusively negative for the controversial game publisher. Let's recap:

June 25th: CNN reports that T2 canceled upcoming PC game Snow, a drug-dealing simulation deep into development.

June 27th: GamePolitics and other sources pick up on a New York Post report that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has issued "unusually wide-ranging" subpoenas dealing with Hot Coffee as well as the way in which T2 reported "key financial information" related to "acquisitions, partnerships and the recent dismissal of its longtime auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers."

June 27th: Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says, "It is likely that one or more Take Two employees may be subject to a potential criminal indictment." Wow!! Take Two execs be doing the perp walk?
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Today marks an important court date for the video game industry, the state of Louisiana and for Miami attorney and anti-game activist Jack Thompson.

Attorneys representing the ESA (game publishers) and EMA (game retailers and renters) will face off against the Louisiana Attorney General's office in Federal District Court in Baton Rouge. At the hearing, the game industry will seek a preliminary injunction to block the state's new video game law from taking effect.

GamePolitics readers will recall that Louisiana Rep. Roy Burrell's violent video game bill was largely drafted by game industry nemesis Thompson. Gov. Kathleen Babineux Blanco signed the legislation into law earlier this month, and the new statute was scheduled to take effect immediately. However, in response to the video game industry's lawsuit, Federal District Court Judge James Brady issued a temporary restraining order pending today's hearing.
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The other shoe has dropped in Oklahoma.

As expected, the EMA (retailers) and ESA (publishers) jointly announced yesterday that the video game industry has filed suit in Oklahoma to challenge the state's new video game law on constitutional grounds.

"Legislators have sold parents a bill of goods for political expediency," said ESA President Doug Lowenstein in a press release. "They know the bill will be struck down, they know it's based on bad science, and they know it won't help parents do their jobs. What they won't tell voters: we just picked your pocket to the tune of a half million dollars, the amount the state will have to reimburse the ESA after the inevitable decision is made to strike down the law."
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Shocked, but not surprised.

That is how Louisiana Rep. Roy Burrell (D), sponsor of his state's contested video game law described his reaction to the video game industry's suit to have HB1381 overturned on constitutional grounds.

In an interview with the Shreveport Times, Burrell said, "I knew it would happen, but this being my first time, it shocked me. I'm all for free speech, but not at the detriment of children," Burrell said.

"If I'm wrong, I apologize, but I don't see it that way. When it relates to protecting these kids, I don't apologize."

Reacting to a line in the lawsuit which reads, "Like great literature, these games often involve themes such as good versus evil, triumph over adversity, struggle against corrupt powers, and quest for adventure," Burrell said, "The kind of literature I've seen in some of these games is not 'great.' It may be great for somebody but it's not great for children. It's great for profits and great for controlling the minds of kids, but literary value? None... You're the one who's killing the cops. You're the one who's beating the woman. Pavlov's Law kicks in, giving you a reward for this behavior."

Want to talk about it? You can discuss this story via the "comments" feature (click below), or in the new GamePolitics Forums...

A federal judge in Baton Rouge has issued a temporary injunction which blocks Louisiana's new violent video game law from taking effect. As written, the measure would have been in force immediately upon becoming law late last week. A hearing on the matter is scheduled in Baton Rouge for June 30th.

As readers will recall, GamePolitics broke the news that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) signed HB1381 into law on Thursday evening. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Roy Burrell (D) and largely drafted by controversial anti-game attorney Jack Thompson, seeks to define violent games as "harmful to minors," using the same legal standard by which obscenity is determined.
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Here's a story which is sure to warm the hearts of those who love an underdog...

Twenty-four-year-old gamer Brian Kopp has successfully stared down the likes of Blizzard, Vivendi and the ESA in a lawsuit which accused the defendants of misrepresentation in their claims that Kopp's self-authored World of Warcraft strategy guide violated terms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Last August Kopp began selling "The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold Guide" on Ebay for fifteen bucks. Soon thereafter, Blizzard, Vivendi and the ESA invoked the DMCA, claiming that Kopp's home brew enterprise violated copyrighted material in WoW. Ebay then forced Kopp to take down auction listings which advertised the book and eventually suspended his account.

That probably would have been the end of Kopp's career in the strategy guide business, but Public Citizen, a national nonprofit public interest organization, offered to assist the beleaguered Mr. Kopp. Public Citizen filed a federal suit on Kopp's behalf in March. On Friday Public Citizen issued a press release announcing that the defendants had capitulated and will no longer object to Kopp selling his guidebook on Ebay.
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So sue me.

Collectively, that's what the Florida Bar Association said to our old pal Jack Thompson, who was only too glad to oblige. As reported by the Daily Business Review, the controversial Miami attorney has filed a $1,000,000 federal lawsuit against the Florida Bar, alleging that the organization is harassing him by investigating what Thompson contends are baseless complaints filed by a pair of rival law firms.

"I enjoy doing what I do and I think I've got a First Amendment right to annoy people and participate in the public square in the cultural war," Thompson told the newspaper.

GP: We're glad someone enjoys what Jack does, but we've re-read the First Amendment umpteen times and still can't find the "right to annoy people."
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Troubles continue to pile up for Take-Two Interactive.

The latest bad news is a class action suit filed this morning in federal court by the City of Flint (MI) and its pension fund. The suit alleges securities fraud and insider stock trading. According to allegations in the suit, Take-Two deceived the city's pension fund as well as other investors, by misrepresenting the assets of the corporation and hiding the financial damage done by the Hot Coffee scandal.

The suit also alleges that while the Flint pension administrators were buying TTWO in hopes of raising the value of its portfolio, insiders dumped $18 million worth of shares based on knowledge that Hot Coffee would cause the stock to tank.

Mayor Don Williamson (left) said, "Fraud against the taxpayers of Flint and our retired Flint police officers and firefighters will not be tolerated. Not only was the city pension fund deceived as to the value of the stock, but the true nature of what this company was selling was being concealed too."

The Associated Press has more on this story, including word that Flint invested $524,000 in TTWO, ultimately taking a $176,000 loss.

"This is the kind of investment you did not want to make," city attorney George Peck told retirement board members Tuesday. "The bottom line is you were deceived."

The shareholder suits now plaguing Take-Two (TTWO) seem to be coming out of the woodwork. The latest class-action has been filed by Schiffrin & Barroway, a law firm in Radnor, PA (Philadelphia suburbs).

The named plaintiff in the latest case is one David Andrews. The complete filing in the case can be read here.

By way of Kotaku comes word that state attorney generals in North Carolina and Connecticut have requested records and information from Take Two relating to the Hot Coffee scandal.

The information is contained in the company's annual report, which was filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is available online.

While no suits have been filed by North Carolina or Connecticut, such action seems possible, perhaps even likely, given the request for records.

State-level video game legislation sponsored by Sen. Julia Boseman came close to passage in North Carolina last year. Connecticut, of course, is the home state of U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, a longtime watchdog of the video game industry. In addition, a Federal Trade Commission investigation of Hot Coffee has been ongoing since last July.

But the revelations concerning North Carolina and Connecticut aren't the only juicy bits in the annual report. Under the heading "Legal Proceedings," are listed the following:

- four class-action suits over Hot Coffee: two in New York state, one in Illinois, and one in Pennsylvania. As described by Take Two's annual report, "The complaints seek unspecified damages, declarations of various violations of law and litigation costs. We believe that these complaints are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend and seek dismissals of these actions."
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...and the Tuscaloosa News has an excellent piece on Devin Moore's death row letter.

As reported on GameSpot and elsewhere, Electronic Arts has settled the Kirshenbaum class-action suit for a reported $15.6 million (that's a lot of copies of Madden, even at the monopoly price). GamePolitics detailed the case in report back on June 8th.

A second case, the Hasty class-action, is not included in the settlement. Of course, it was the now-famous EA Spouse blog that first brought to the public's attention the long hours without compensation that EA's development talent was subjected to.