Lawsuit filed against Sony, Wal-Mart over game (GTA) linked to shootings

[Wonk]

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A $246 million lawsuit was filed against the designer, marketer and a retailer of the video game series "Grand Theft Auto" by the families of two people shot by teenagers apparently inspired by the game.

The suit claims marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., designers Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart, are liable for $46 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.

Aaron Hamel, 45, a registered nurse, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, of Moneta, Virginia, was seriously wounded when their cars were hit June 25 by .22-caliber bullets as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains.

Stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, of Newport, were sentenced in August to an indefinite term in state custody after pleading guilty in juvenile court to reckless homicide, endangerment and assault.

The boys told investigators they got the rifles from a locked room in their home and decided to randomly shoot at tractor-trailer rigs, just like in the video game "Grand Theft Auto III."

more...

on edit: added bold, because some people seem to have missed that paragraph.

[mainegreen]

1. Geee...

Some one shot my family so I guess I sue a video game maker instead of the person who shot my family member!

Gee, I wish someone would shoot my family based on a video came so I could get some money, er I mean justice.

Wanks

[morstyranni]

3. Wal-Mart wouldn't be sued if the family of the shooter had some money.

Fucking Lawyers, they are assholes, the only reason so many of them pursue "justice" os because of the 40% commission so many of them get. They don't give a shithouse rat's ass about the victim or the cause only the mo-ney!

THIS IS WHY I SUPPORT TORT REFORM!

[kanrok]

11. Interesting argument

Let's throw the baby out with the bathwater. The answer to ths lawsuit is to have the defense file a motion for summary judgment and potentially sanction the attorney who filed it. Tort "reformers" argument is that we should "cap" damages and that would stop "frivilous" lawsuits. It would only stop people with meritorious lawsuits from being adequately compensated. I get a hoot out of people who believe this kind of lawsuit represents what goes on in court every day. Is this lawsuit a stupid idea? You bet it is. Should we enact tort "reform" (which is actually corporate welfare on a huge scale) or should we use existing rules to deal with lawyers who feel compelled to file these cases? I'd be interested in why you believe lawyers are "fucking assholes." I would also like to hear your ideas to solve this "problem." Judging by your post, I suspect I won't get a cogent argument out of you on this one.

[morstyranni]

15. here's my cogent argument:

People who get rich off other people's misery under the guise of justice are assholes - that includes lawyers who pursue frivoulous and outlandish lawsuits. Are you one of these people - you sound like one.

[kanrok]

20. Hmmm....smart and compassionate, what a combo

You must have gone to Harvard, with logical, cogent arguments like that! Kudos.

[chopper]

5. yeah, but you forget...

Steve Dallas' first rule of lawsuits, never ever *ever* sue poor people.

rich companies, however, are fair game.

this is just like the lawsuit against MTV because sime kid burned the house down, and the parents said he got it from 'Beavis and Butthead', despite the fact that they didn't even have cable. but no, he must've watched it over at a friend's house. oh yeah, and the kid had always been a pyromaniac. but it had to be the television.

but of course, it couldn't possibly be bad parenting, or maybe just a bad kid. it has to be Marilyn Manson's fault.

[morstyranni]

8. It's fair game until people start losing their jobs

I hate these lawsuits - all of them - even the ones against big tobacco.

If cigarettes are so bad why not just make them illegal - because there's money to be made both by government taxing the shit out people because of their addiction, and by scummy lawyers who see an old woman with lung cancer and only see a settlement instead of a sick person, same with the lawyers suing the church, like they give a shit about little timmy getting diddled, all they want is a the vatican's money.

I FUCKING HATE THESE LAWYERS, the only good one was Lionel Hutz, and he's dead!

[chopper]

10. ah, Hutz...

the most brilliant litigator in the history of American jurisprudence.

Hutz: All right gentleman. I will take your case. But I will require a thousand dollar retainer.
Bart: A thousand dollars. But your ad says "no money down".
Hutz: Oh, they got this all screwed up.
Bart: So you don't work on a contingency basis?
Hutz: "No, money down". Oops, I shouldn't have the Bar Association logo here either.

[snooper2]

2. Another stupid lawsuit...

The video game made me do it....sheesh...

[UpInArms]

6. yeah, and I always dreamed about

being able to get the guns out of locked run and play "shoot 'em up" -

huh????

well, I guess when war is "virtual game" and we can "shock and awe" them on television and never see any dead bodies or caskets ...

life has definitely taken a turn for the stupid and criminally insane

[DS1]

4. So Iraqis should sue Microprose for making Falcon 4?

or Electronic Arts for Command and Conquer? Or Parker Bros. for Risk?

[jayfish]

22. Not Much Left Of MPS To Sue Is There?

I also think this whole thing is crap. I (and most of my friends)have been playing video games since nearly the beginning. I have played and enjoyed video games from the mundane to the absolutely ultra violent. I(and friends)have yet to go out and mimic any of them. As a matter of fact, being raised by a single parent from the age of 12, I credit video games with keeping me out of much of the trouble that I could have so easily fallen into during my teen years. I cannot say I was an angel but I ended up a heck of a lot better off then others who were in my situation. It's all about education and awareness. Two things that seem to be lacking in today’s youth.

Jay

[pstokely]

7. thought wally-world didn't sell violent video games

they censor the CDs sold there

[Chovexani]

12. Wally World and friends are a bunch of hypocritical assclowns.

<snip>
The night before, a friend had told me via the internet that her Wal-Mart managing boyfriend might be able to get the game early.

"How so?" I asked her.

"Well, they’re gonna deliver the game tonight."

"At Wal-mart?" I asked.

"Yep. At Wal-mart."

Who here remembers a few months ago? Remember all those stores, taking a stand, back when the Pope or some senator or whoever was on television bashing Grand Theft Auto III a whole year too late?

'We will not carry this game.'

They were pretty gung-ho about their social responsibility, weren’t they?

Well, what the hell happened? Why do I see the game at Target, at Wal-Mart, at Best Buy, at all these places I was told would not, under any circumstances, carry that game?

"Record reservations," that woman would have said. They just don’t want to miss out on good money. Nor do they want to enforce the ID-checking policy.

"She said, since all the other stores had the game, and since we had all the extra copies . . ."

<snip>
http://www.insertcredit.com/reviews/gtavc/GTAVC1.html

This is in reference to GTA Vice City, the sequel to GTA3. I think this lawsuit, and the uproar over "video game violence" is so much horseshit personally, being a gamer. However, Wally World and all the other non-gaming outlets (meaning stores who don't primarily sell video games) who self-righteously condemned GTA3 are a bunch of grandstanding, money-grubbing hypocritical assclowns.

--C.

[Chovexani]

9. Guns don't kill people, video games do. Riiiight.

By that logic, I should have gone on a murderous crime spree a long time ago, along with millions of other gamers.

I'll defer to the infinite wisdom of my favorite philosopher-poets on this one, Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=1999-04-14&r...

[KuroKensaki]

14. Not to mention...

If video games -really- influenced us? My generation grew up with Pac-Man, so by that logic, wouldn't we all be milling around in dark rooms with neon walls, popping magic pills and listening to repetetive electronic music?

Ohh...

Hee, no, the above was not mine, I heard it somewhere. And it's stupid to think that games influence people. Kids played cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, long before GTA3 came out. And on Looney Tunes, if someone gets shot with a gun, they don't die, their face just gets blackened--I'd say that's -more- dangerous than showing the actual consequences of shooting someone with a gun, wouldn't you?

No, the reason there's so much gun violence these days is because we're a gun culture. Like a lady on Bowling for Columbine says, 'Everyone's first reaction is to pull out a gun.'

[LifeDuringWartime]

17. gotta love penny arcade

[DrWeird]

13. money grubbing pricks

trying to make money off of dead family members.

[LifeDuringWartime]

16. horseshit

i think that's all that needs to be said.

[rocktivity]

18. "Miami lawyer Jack Thompson"?

Isn't he the guy who was trying to shut down the sex rappers Luther Campbell and The 2 Live Crew? Thompson fought the good fight until Luther, who was on a self-made record label, got a deal from big-bucks label Atlantic Records. Haven't heard about him since.


rocknation

[VolcanoJen]

19. Kick!

[not systems]

21. Idiots.

People who blame video games, movies, and music
for societies problems make me ill.

I like GTA3, Kill Bill, and NWA so I might be bias.

[Robb]

23. While we're quoting Steve Dallas,

...let's not forget my favorite salient quote:

Asked what, if not violence on TV and film, was leading to the decline of moral and ethical values in our youth, his answer:

"I dunno... the narrow, suffocating zealotry masquerading as parenting in this country?"

[Born Free]

24. OH NO, I love that game

I'm too old to play it right but love watching my son play it ( he's in his mid 20's now), my son grew up playing video games with me watching . I sure hope they don't manage to take GTA off the market. I don't get to watch my son play too often these days, he moved out after he graduated college and got a job in software development for a main frame computer manufacturer. However, I still keep a PS2 around and have Grand Theft Auto - it's funny, you just can't take it seriously , anymore than you would believe DOGMA or STARGATE or any other fictional story line.

At this poiint in time I would blame the parents more than the game, why did they have the guns available in the first place? The kids are old enough to know better, they probably heard their beer drinking friends and adults saying they could kill and blame it on the video games, of course that only works if you are one of the chosen - just as Rush Limbaugh will get off becasue he is one of the chosen.

[MadMan]

25. Attorneys are all assholes...

... until you need one.

[0rganism]

26. So the parents ignored the "M" ratings label, and that's Rockstar's fault?

"Stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, of Newport" shouldn't have been playing (or buying) the game at all, and now it's the programmers' and producers' liability? What a load of crap that is.

Lots of teenagers die in DUIs, maybe their families should have sued Anheiser-Busch? Oh wait, that's "different".