This is reaching, I don't see why games should be treated any differently than movies. I signed the petition, I highly doubt this will pass either way. The gaming industry is big bucks now, and money is power.
Because failing industries are doing everything in their power to make sure their outdated business models and lobbying like crazy to make sure we adjust our laws to suit their needs.
This article doesn't say anything about banning anything, it's a case about constitutional rights. It doesn't really have anything to do with California either, that's just the source case that they're going to base the legal precedent on. The supreme court just wants to determine whether video games should be treated in the same way as other media. The title of this thread is misleading. But yes, important. If you're an American, you should sign this.
So, there's a new bill on the floor in Cali. Now they're banning plastic bags from stores. Apparently, the state uses 17 billion bags a year, I can understand why this will be a bad thing, but think of all the hundreds of thousands of retail stores that will lose so much money due to this, along with all the people that make the bags.
"The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund submits that, if allowed to stand, California’s law would reverse fundamental First Amendment principles by creating a new category of unprotected speech, diminishing the First Amendment rights of minors, and reducing First Amendment protection for new media. The CBLDF argues that the law under review is the most recent example of government improperly attempting to regulate content by using junk science, and calls upon a history of moral panics against media that includes the 1950s crusades against comics that crippled the industry and harmed the art form. The CBLDF asks the Supreme Court to deny California this attempt to roll back protections guaranteed by the First Amendment, as it and other courts have correctly done in the past." http://cbldf.org/homepage/comic-book-legal-defense-fund-urges-supreme-court-to-reject-new-restrictions-on-speech-in-video-game-censorship-case/
Just an update, during the hearing Justice Scalia said: "Some of the Grimm's Fairy Tales are quite grim, to tell you the truth" he said. "Are they OK? Are you going to ban them, too? … What's next after violence? Drinking? Smoking? … Are we to sit day by day to decide what else will be made an exception from the First Amendment? Why is this particular exception OK, but the other ones that I just suggested are not OK?"