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Grand Theft Auto lawsuit

Posted by Marcel Klum on 23 October 2003 - 06:39 · 36 comments & 6117 views

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.

News source: CNN

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."

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(1 reply) #1 Posted by mAcOdIn on 23 Oct 2003 - 06:46: If the kids were that mentally weak that they were influenced by a video game then just kill them now.

I'm tired of all these people with no will power blaming the media for thier actions.

Maybe they should see who bought them the game(most likely the parents bought it for them) abd sue them instead.

#2 Posted by SW5 on 23 Oct 2003 - 06:46: this is just stupid.. poor rockstar games, we want them to have money to put into GTA 5 . There sueing Wal-Mart for selling it???? what has the usa come to

(2 replies) #3 Posted by MoRiA on 23 Oct 2003 - 06:47: Ok.... And the '18' rating is there for what reason then? These guys shouldn't have even been playing the game....

#4 Posted by Righty on 23 Oct 2003 - 06:56: this is just plain stupid

(1 reply) #5 Posted by virtorio on 23 Oct 2003 - 07:11: You have to wonder, if somebody shot people because they saw it in a video game, just how far would they get in life anyway.

#6 Posted by Jasco on 23 Oct 2003 - 07:21: They probably thought they could make money this way 'if we kill someone, and blame it on a videogame, we will get rich!' only in the us of a...

#7 Posted by monofonik on 23 Oct 2003 - 07:53: why don't these kids f-king parents learn how to raise children and teach them that guns aren't to be used that way, and that killing people is real?

stupid idiot kids. the game's even got a warning, it shouldn't be sold to kids of that age.

#8 Posted by lieb39 on 23 Oct 2003 - 08:29

Stupid. The GTA series is really good, but you are underage you shouldn't play the game in any case. You also need to realize that it's a game, and life is reality... Get it straight. Also, where are the parents on monitoring the kids, espically the guns and stuff.

QUOTE

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."

What are they suppose to do? Take it off the market? Stupid people.

The Grand Theft Auto series are the best games i've ever played, and yes, I am underage but my parents let me and I know the difference between reality and a simple video game.

-lieb39

#9 Posted by donachello on 23 Oct 2003 - 09:32: What is the world coming to...? how can a game have an affect on reality it's just really stupid... Why do people get reality and fiction muddled up and cause injury to innocent people...

Really dull and stupid...

#10 Posted by idoia on 23 Oct 2003 - 09:45: another hit from the Sue Happy People Group

(1 reply) #11 Posted by idoia on 23 Oct 2003 - 09:48: Ohh and remind me not to watch my brother playing Postal2 , or I could go and burn the whole Pakistani Store next

#12 Posted by Alien_II on 23 Oct 2003 - 10:45: I'm currently _ALMOST_ 16 and i play Vice City, and I have played GTA since version 2. I have also played most of the other rated M titles... haven't killed anything yet

/me goes into seizure mode *muust kill* *must kill*
/me shoots anybody that read this msg
/me blames it on GTA

(1 reply) #13 Posted by GiB WaKeR on 23 Oct 2003 - 11:09: I've been playing Commodore 64 games since I was 2, and was playing Quake 1 when it was first released which by my estimates would put me at the age of 10 if it came out in 96'. I've always known (yes, even from the impressionable age of 2) that video games are something done on a computer or console, and have very little to do with the 'Real World'. I've also played GTA since the first installment, along with practically every other big-name game ever released on the PC. If these kids can't tell the difference between polygons and the real world, they need to be taken out back and put down for their own good.

#14 Posted by ubelphenix on 23 Oct 2003 - 11:36: this is so damn stupid, i think sony should sue the parents for raising some real morons and being a danger to society; and wal-mart should sue for the parents allowing their dumb *#&@ kids come into their story and make them look bad...

now since i have just finished playing some counterstrike i am going to go out dressed as 1337 krew and shoot up stuff... this crap just pisses me off... ARGH!

(1 reply) #15 Posted by SimplyPotatoes on 23 Oct 2003 - 11:43: another stupid lawsuit dont they realized no case like this has ever won, at least i know the lawyer isnt an idiot, who wouldn't want to be payed for a pointless lawsuit! my bet is he asked rockstar for 10grand to go away

(2 replies) #16 Posted by dougkinzinger on 23 Oct 2003 - 11:57: Uh....I posted this in the forums mid-yesterday........

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=109964

(1 reply) #17 Posted by Devlin on 23 Oct 2003 - 12:31: Oh yeah yet another liberal atempt to place the blame on someone else

It's not my fault I saw it on TV, put them in jail!!!! I am not crazy!!!!

does this mean I can go renact a CSI murder and say they made me do it!
Give me a break.

Kill the god Damm lawyers!!!!
Stop Big Goverment!!!!!!!!!

#18 Posted by billycrack on 23 Oct 2003 - 13:05: It's not the first time we see this type of story. I mean, people calling hell on vg to excuse themselves. It seems nothing has been learned. Sadly, I'd team up with the sue_the_parents_they _raised_morons_that_cant_make _the_difference_between_life_and_fiction bunch.

#19 Posted by kemical on 23 Oct 2003 - 13:16: i get drunk and cheat on my gf can i sue for my loss when i get caught?

#20 Posted by Prelude76 on 23 Oct 2003 - 13:21: its funny how now one ever blames the feeble minded fools themselves that do the actual shooting. its always someone else's fault. blame the music. blame the games. blame the tv. blame the movies. blame the guns. blame the parents.

it reminds me of that part in "Bowling for Columbine" (an excellent film. if you havent seen it, you're missing out big time). after Columbine shooting, they blame all the same reasons. I think the video game "Doom" was blamed too. and the biggest scapegoat blamed was "Marilyn Manson". so when Michael Moore interviewed Manson himself, its one of the most memorable scenes of the film, when Manson says the same day the shootings happened, President Clinton launched the biggest single day bombing of Kosovo. "and who has more influence on kid's thoughts? I'd like to think it's me, but i'm pretty sure the President of the United States has more influence." sorta like what we see on news every day. another stabbing. another killing. another US-led war in Iraq. more fighting in Afghanistan. another workplace shooting. another school shooting. another terrorist bombing in Israel. another Israel air strike killing dozens. another US soldier killed in Iraq. oh, and let's not forget the Sept 11th specials that bombarded us day and night, showing the horror in slow motion. ya know, you really dont need games/movies/tv shows influencing the kids. they simply have to follow the news to be de-sensatized by it all. To blame it one thing is so stupid its aggravating. when this kind of stuff happens, its probably ALL those factors put together that allowed a mentally unstable kid to be so dis-attached with the world he forgets whats right and wrong.

#21 Posted by donachello on 23 Oct 2003 - 14:17: It's like Chucky all over again...

#22 Posted by donachello on 23 Oct 2003 - 14:18: So what a about Max Payne 2 does this main I'm going to go out a kill; loads of cleaners///

#23 Posted by Callaway on 23 Oct 2003 - 18:05: I would sue the parents of the children if anything.

#24 Posted by Grandmoto on 24 Oct 2003 - 00:53: Thats what I don't get when ever there is a violent thing dealing with kids and guns they blame it on either T.V., music, or video game but they don't blame it on the fact that the kids were f***ed-up in the head in the first place.

#25 Posted by paulhaskew on 24 Oct 2003 - 21:29: what about the game Interstate 82... drive around in a car and shoot other ones...

or cargeddon... etc... the list could go on... why the hell are these stupid kids playing these games anyways???

#26 Posted by rusonjitsu on 25 Oct 2003 - 19:14: "WE CANT ADMIT THAT OUR KIDS R TRUELY MESSED UP-I KNOW-LETS BLAME VIDEOGAMES [/MUSIC/TV/blablablabla]"

Admittedly kids can become messed up if they play a game like GTA, but thats y it has an 18cert! i know of parents whove bought their 8year olds GTA3/Vice City; somehow they ignore the cert, then blame the manuafacturers for influencing thier kids-GTA aint for kids, it has an 18 cert!!

DUH

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