Federal Court Blocks California Video Game Law

Posted on December 26, 2005

EcommerceTimes.com reports that a federal court has blocked a California law that would have kept gamers under the age of 18 from renting and buying video games that were labeled as adult games.

The law, which California lawmakers passed and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in October, would require that violent video games be sold with labels identifying them as suitable for those 18 and older, and would have allowed fines of up to US$1,000 against retailers who rented or sold those games to minors.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte ruled that appeals against the law had a chance to prevail on free-speech grounds. Though the judge did find that at least one game, "Postal II," contained scenes that were "especially cruel and depraved," he said that didn't mean that the state should step in and stop them from being sold to certain individuals.

There will obviously be more attempts to create state laws that blocks sales of adult video games to minors. Senator Hillary Clinton has called for federal legislation.
In fact, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton recently said she plans to introduce federal legislation that would limit what type of businesses could sell mature- and adult-rated video games.

Such a bill would undoubtedly face both fierce lobbying from game developers and other niches of the entertainment industry, which might fear a spread of the attacks on video games to movies and other forms of media.

The point about other entertainment forms like films rising up to support games is interesting -- many games are already translated into movies and vice versa so there is already quite a bit of collaboration between the gaming industry and Hollywood.

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