Familes sue over GTA-style shootings

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/22/v...t.ap/index.html

 

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."

 

In a suit filed Monday in Cocke County Circuit Court on behalf of the victims, Miami lawyer Jack Thompson and local lawyer Richard Talley alleged the game "inspires and trains players to shoot at vehicles and persons."

 

"These kids simply decided to take the thrill of that game out to Interstate 40 and started pointing at cars," Thompson said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

 

Thompson, who said he sent letters to Sony and Wal-Mart to drop the game before the shootings, said, "It's not like this is coming out of the blue, they chose to ignore this danger."

 

San Mateo, California-based Sony and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart did not return calls for comment Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges the retail giant sold the game to the Buckners about a year before the shootings.

 

Douglas Lowenstein, president of the industry Entertainment Software Association, called the shootings "an unspeakable tragedy" but said blaming a game played by millions for the boys' actions was "misguided and counterproductive."

 

"There is no credible evidence that violent games lead to violent behavior," he said. "While video games may provide a simple excuse for the teenagers involved in this incident, responsibility for violent acts belongs to those who commit them."

 

Thompson has made similar claims in the past and lost, notably a $33 million lawsuit against video game makers stemming from the 1997 school shooting near Paducah, Kentucky, by a 14-year-old boy.

 

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case last year that it was "simply to far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom."

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

I belive all of us here actualy called this one back when the shooting occurred, and though I hate stuff like this with a passion, it will not succeed. The lawsuits filed in the wake of Columbine against video and computer game companies failed. And even after a decade of trying, the anti-videogame movement has failed to prove any link between violent games and violent behavior. Video games do not turn chior boys into mini Ted Bundys, but they will become the drug of choice so to speak of someone who's already violent or has unchecked violent tendancies. To suddenly lay balme on the vidoe game compaines when a badly parented kid snaps and does damage like this is to overlook the real problem and turn liability into a game of musical chairs. So whoever last influenced the kid when the music stops has to fork over the cash.

 

This one is a joke, GTA is hardly a training simulator in the proper use of firearms as the lawyers are saying. Point, shoot, result, is all it shows. It gives no practical information on how to use an actual gun. How many of us think we could walk out the door and pilot a helicopter? you can do that in GTA too! or how about jumping off a 10 story building and only losing 10 healthpoints? you can do that too! As for the "insparation" part. Even if it did, it's a freaking game, a GAME, there is an implied element of fantasy. The things in it are not real, and you can "kill" all you want because you aren't taking lives, you're just shooting at impesssions of real people, just as you shoot at shillouete targets of people at a gun range. Those who CANNOT draw a distinction between the fantasy world of GTA and the real world need a checkup from the neck up. Whatever happened to personal responsability? How is this going to fix the root problem of kids not recieving good parenting these days? I feel bad for the people it happened to, but to lay the blame at the feet of Sony? and Wal Mart? Neither of those two institutions picked up the rifle from a locked room with the obivous intent to shoot at cars. It was two kids who are being punished for it. You've got your justice, and if that's not enough, well, I"m sorry, but this is greedy, misguided and arrogant to put the blame elswhere. All it does is reinforce the victim society we have allowed to grow in this country, to the point we have now where everytime a crime occurs, a civil action is sure to follow, blaming whoever has deep pockets for causing the tradgedy

 

The game is rated a mature game, the kids had no buisness playing it in the first place, if any of the companies are to blame at all, a sliver of it goes to Wal Mart for selling to underaged buyers, but that hardly justifies the big fat payday these people want. Shades of Columbine again, parents weren't aware the kids were buying guns and building pipebombs in thier own bedrooms, but they sure had the lawyers on speed-dial the instant it was over.

 

Fortunately, there is enough caselaw stemming from these bullshit suits that the industry hopefully becoming slowly immune to them

 

Sorry if that was long, but I have to vent sometimes on the lunacythat has affected us so that in the wake of a tradgedy, all we can see are lawyers and dollar signs, is it any wonder the shootings continue?

[Youth N Asia 0]

Anyone fucked up enough to pull this is going to do it whether they play video games or not. I wish we weren't so retarded that shit like this even gets off the ground.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Most of us said our two bits regarding this subject's absurdity here…

Edited October 29, 2003 by kkktookmybabyaway

[Highland 0]

"Oh fuck off!"

 

The words I blurted out as I finished reading the article.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Just think about what would happen if they had lawsuits like these back in the 80's? With shows like Knight Rider, Dukes Of Hazzard, and the A-Team it would never end.

 

Just think a teen would take his folks car and jump something like in the Dukes and after he wrecks and almost kills or does kills himself the family would sue the makers of the Dukes for not showing with really happens when someone jumps a car.

 

A dumbass would get a black Trans Am and try to do all the things Kitt does and when he kills himself the family would sue the makers of KR.

 

And as for the A-Team this would be really funny. A bunch of dumb teenagers that should know better all get the dads guns and play "A-Team" thinking they wouldn't get shot but, of course, they would end up killing themselves and the families would sue the makers of the A-Team for not showing what really happens in a gun fight.

 

As dumb as all of these may sound you know it would happen if lawsuits like the ones today happened back in the 80's.

[Dr. Tom 0]

I love how people say that no value can be placed on human life, yet sham lawsuits like this are doing exactly that. New maxim: It's impossible to place a value on human life, unless there's somebody rich to sue.

[Highland 0]

"Everybody has a price."