- Take Two, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto game
series, is once again facing a lawsuit that alleges its software was complicit
in murder.
-
- The legal action was filed on behalf of the families
of police force staff shot dead in Fayette, Alabama in 2003, allegedly
by one Devin Thompson.
-
- Thompson was apprehended on suspicion of driving a stolen
car. He is claimed by state prosecutors to have snatched a policeman's
gun and shot officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump, and a dispatcher,
Leslie Mealer.
-
- The lawsuit maintains that Thompson's actions that day
were inspired by the GTA series, games he is claimed to have played obsessively.
The games amount to "training" for the alleged killings, the
families' lawyer told local paper the Tuscaloosa News.
-
- Thompson is now 18 years old, but at the time of the
shootings he was 16. As such, the lawsuit claims, he should not have been
sold GTA III and GTA: Vice City, which carry an M rating - for 'mature
audience only', ie. anyone 17 years old or more. On that basis, the plaintiffs
requested that the book also be thrown at retailers Wal-Mart and Gamestop
for allegedly allowing Thompson to buy the games.
-
- It also names Sony, as manufacturer of the PlayStation
2 console on which Thompson is said to have played the games.
-
- This isn't the first time GTA has got its publisher and
retail partners in trouble. At least two lawsuits relating to the game
are currently pending against Take Two and, separately, BestBuy.
-
- The lawsuit was announced in the same week that the US
Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) publicly criticised
the California legislature's attempt to ban the sale of violent games to
children.
-
- The proposed bill, dubbed "redundant... frivolous...
irresponsible [and] unconstitutional" by the IEMA, seeks to amend
existing state law concerning content harmful to children to include games
which "depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially
heinous, atrocious, or cruel". If the bill becomes law, retailers
caught selling such material to children could faces fines of up to $1,000.
-
- The bill was proposed by California Assembly member Leland
Yee who last year suggested a similar bill only to have it voted down.
-
- The IEMA said that games are already sufficiently labelled,
though the US ESRB ratings scheme, to show the ages for which they are
suitable. It claimed that it is already working hard to ensure its members
do not sell games to under-age customers.
-
- © Copyright 2005
-
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/17/taketwo_gta_lawsuit/
|