Utah bill that would equate games with pornography fails

[CptStern]

even though the utah bill was passed in the house of reps by an overwhelming 56-8 vote it failed to be passed into law when he senate failed to bring it to a vote:


"Facing a midnight deadline to pass legislation, the Utah State Senate last night failed to bring to a vote Rep. David Hogue's (seen at left) highly controversial bill which would have amended an existing law concerning distribution of porn to minors. The now-dead HB257 would have equating giving violent games to children with providing them with hardcore smut."


Doug Lowenstein had this to say about the defeat:

"We are pleased that the Utah bill was not enacted at this time. We continue to believe that bills such as this one are both unconstitutional and unnecessary. We welcome the opportunity to work with any and all of those who care about these important issues to find legal and effective ways to ensure that parents have the tools to make informed decisions about the games they buy"



we're not out the woods yet as this can come back in the next session


http://gamepolitics.com/

 

[Solaris]

Yay!...

 

[Jack_Karverboy]

Good. I hate Utah.

 

[Yuri]

I don't understand how this really affects you, Stern. I don't think Canada would ever pass laws like that... do you?

 

[CptStern]

no they wouldnt (I hope so) but any legislation that puts gaming in the media spotlight hurts developers/publishers ...they're more lkely to turn down a project that they may deem to be contrversial or that may come back to bite them in the ass ...had it been any other company but rockstar who had been targeted by the hot coffee fiasco they'd have filed for chapter 11 a long time ago

any attack on games, no matter how insignificant has a ripple effect on the industry as a whole ..we're not hollywood, we dont have scores of lobbyists and uber powerful studios with more cash at their disposal than some countries

 

[DeusExMachina]

I don't see this becoming law anyway. It is unconstitutional. If you're gonna equate it with porn, than you'd have to do it with books and movies. Even music. And like I said, that's unconstitutional.

 

[JNightshade]

Sweet. And I definitely agree wth DEM here.

 

[VirusType2]

I like to think my soap box rambling had an effect! This was bullshit. Im glad to find out that there are some people with a brain holding power in this country! I wasn't sure...

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't understand how this really affects you, Stern. I don't think Canada would ever pass laws like that... do you?

Why did so many people donate to the tsunami apeal, it didn't affect them.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Why did so many people donate to the tsunami apeal, it didn't affect them.

Compassion.

 

[JNightshade]

Or guilt. Or empathy. Or an excess in money. There are a million possible reasons- just as there are for caring about this.