'Grand Theft Auto' Makers Fight Lawsuit

yahoo.com | Nov 11, 8:19 AM | DUNCAN MANSFIELD

[freepatriot32]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The creators of the video game series "Grand Theft Auto" want a federal judge to dismiss a $246 million lawsuit filed by the families of two people shot by teenagers

Rockstar Games and its New York City-based parent, Take-Two Interactive Software, said the victims' families were trying to hold them liable "based on the expressive content of the video game."

Retailer Wal-Mart and marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., are also named in the lawsuit.

Aaron Hamel, 45, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, was seriously wounded when their cars were hit June 25 by .22-caliber bullets while driving along Interstate 40.

Stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, were sentenced in August to an indefinite term 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."

Responding Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court, Rockstar and Take-Two contend that such ideas and concepts as well as the "purported psychological effects" on the Buckners are protected by the First Amendment's free-speech clause.

A lawyer who represents the victims dismissed the claim, saying he would seek to move the case back into state court for consideration under Tennessee's consumer protection act.

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On the Net:

Take Two: http://www.take2games.com/

[dead]

I ate my own brain after watching "Hannibal."

[Chewbacca]

Considering the game is for adults (NC-17), I think this is a case of bad parenting and no parental supervision.

[New Horizon]

GTA III is an excellent game.

However, the recommended prerequisites to playing it should be that you have a shred of common sense and the ability to separate fantasy from reality.

[dead]

I've never played it, but the same can be said of any game, even ones you don't need a computer to play.

We played "Kill the Guy with the Ball" when I was a kid, but we didn't actually murder anybody. Just bodyslammed them and maybe kicked them a couple of times.

[joesnuffy]

garbage in
garbage out

[Democratshavenobrains]

I ate my own brain after watching "Hannibal."

Back to DU with ya!

[mhking]

Idiots.

BTW, current rumor is that "GTA4: San Andreas" (tenative title) is due late 3rd Quarter or early 4th Quarter of 2004.

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Quick1]

Watching the movie Entrapment made me want to steal jewelry, and slap Catherine Zeta-Jones' ass.

Playing Simcity 4 made me want to balance the local budget.

Playing Pacman made me want to eat little pills while running around a dark room with loud music playing.

This case will get laughed out of court.

[gridlock]

Weplayed "Kill the Guy with the Ball" when I was a kid,...

Funny, we did too. We didn't call it that, though.

Another part of our cultural heritage (such as it is...) lost to PC.

[Terpfen]

4th Quarter 2004, according to Rockstar's shareholder's conference.

Also, it's not GTA4: that name is being reserved for the title coming out after this next one. The next GTA (where'd you get San Andreas from? Rockstar hasn't announced anything related to the game's setting) will be a side-story type thing, like Vice City.

Oh, yeah, the lawsuit... I wonder where all the lawsuits against HBO for airing The Sopranos are hiding? Dumb morons...

[Born Conservative]

I rarely use abbreviations, but this comment deserves a big OMG, ROTFLMAO!!!!

[Axenolith]

Whoa... That kinda puts the kibosh on my gathering together a mechanized army and invading France after playing Panzer General II...

[hchutch]

Sheesh... the folks trying to run GTA's makers into bankruptcy are as full of it as Sarah Brady.

[hchutch]

Or hopping into an F-4J, waxing MiGs over some foreign land, and strafing the pilots that eject from the MiGs in their chutes after playing USNF `97.

[Poohbah]

Paging Mr. Xander Cage...

[kinghorse]

"Kill the Guy with the Ball"?

You're showing you (young) age.

That game is well known by any 8 year old boy born prior to 1960 as "Smear the Queer". We meant about as much harm as Jeremy Shockey meant when he called Parcells a fag. It's a sports term for girly boy.

Oh wait.

My brain hurts.

Out.

[Poohbah]

"He also wants video games banned because he believes that they're destroying education.......come on Dick, it's the only education we got."

[gortklattu]

If I was the lawyer on this case, I'd want the trial held in Littleton, Colorado.

[hchutch]

"Dick, you're a bad man, and you know what we do to bad men? We punish them."