There is a god.

[lordlundar]

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/03/20/b...jack-thompson/

The Florida Supreme court has finally had enough with Jack Thompson's continuous and vitriolic filings that his ability to do so has been neutered. He now needs another lawyer to file for him.

Combined with the fact that he's waiting on a ruling to potentially be disbarred, this equates to a good day.

[tropicsgoddess]

Woo Hoo!!!

[crazylegs]

Am a little confused, could the OP PM me to let me know why this chap has been prevented from using the courts (I'm guessing its fratching territory hence the request for the PM)

[Plaidman]

Am a little confused, could the OP PM me to let me know why this chap has been prevented from using the courts (I'm guessing its fratching territory hence the request for the PM)

I doubt it fratching when its truth. The man in that article does everything in his power to get video games banned, as they are, to him, the reason children kill.

[lordlundar]

It's a long list that spurned this one. First a little history.

John Bruce "Jack" Thompson is a Florida Attorney who's track record includes attempted discrediting of Janet Reno, an injunction against 2Live Crew, and a campaign to get Howard Stern of the radio. He's a Christian conservative who uses his legal authority to get his way. As of late, he has been targeting video games, with a particular focus on Take-Two, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto Series.

Originally, if you talked to him in person, he seemed like a reasonable person. However, this person (and I use the term loosely) has the belief that anyone who does not agree with him is an enemy to his crusade. (yes, I said crusade, it's his own term)

Notable targets of his harassment is:

-Dennis McCauley, owner of Gamepolitics (a gaming news blog that focuses on law and politicians stances), who has had to IPblock Thompson 3 times to stop his harassment. Under the original format of the site, Thompson had created over 100 user names so he could post at best rude comments to regular users. (and yes, I was targeted as well)

-Penny Arcade, after hearing of Thompson's modest proposal (to create a violent game with the targets being game industry executives) and hearing that Thompson would not uphold his end of the proposal, donated $1000 to a game charity (not theirs) in his name. He then proceeded to claim to have sent the seattle police department and the FBI after them. No sight of them.

He also makes claims that any school shooting, irregardless of the shooter or victims, has video games as the sole motivator, his intent being to have proof that he can use in court for is crusade. He makes the same case in any violent incident involving minors. To date, none have succeeded, with the most notable one being Strickland vs. Sony, which took place in Alabama. Thompson was removed from the case.

He has also attempted to draft bills in varying states that makes it illegal to sell M-Rated games to minors with or without parental consent. All of them have failed to make it into law. In addition, he has attempted to declare Bully a public offense in Florida to have it banned, this failed as well.

In every ruling against him, Thompson has declared the judge of being biased and /or unfit to rule on the case. This has developed into a rather large conspiracy theory that everyone who disagrees with him is attempting to discredit him. There is no conspiracy to discredit him, there doesn't need to be one. He's killing his own career.

At current, he is waiting the results of a disciplinary hearing, in which has had several complaints filed against him for conduct unbecoming an officer of the court. His removal of the case in Alabama, a prior disciplinary hearing, and harassment of several judges who ruled against him are brought into evidence. The ruling on this case is expected to be sometime in April. Game politics is now posting a series of excerpts of that hearing.

Over the course of his crusade, Thompson has been sliding, to the casual observer at any rate, to the realm of clinically insane. In one hearing, he had brought a giant sign with the first amendment written on it and would hold it up any time the judge spoke. He has also publicly declared himself equivalent to historic figures such as Paul Revere and even Jesus (no lie, I can't make this up). He has also at one point attempted to subpoena George W. Bush as a witness in his disciplinary hearing, with no word on the results there with, though given the hearing has passed, it is assumed he failed to do such.

The specific incident on this is one of his stupid tricks. He'll file something that is terribly outrageous and offensive (he recently submitted a filing that contained explicit gay porn) that is rejected outright and told he will have to file again. At this point, he files numerous filings, most of which are insulting to the judge in question, in rapid succession. His top record was nearly 20 filings in 3 days, all for the same case.

The supreme court finally had enough and told him if he persisted, he would be prevented from filing his own documents and he would need another attorney to file for him. At this point, in one day he filed a number of documents in the span of a few hours, taunting the court. The result is the link above.

[crazylegs]

The guys a loon.

No really, absolute fruit cake.

[lordlundar]

There is no shortage of people who agree with you on that, myself included.

[Broomjockey]

It's important to note that the disciplinary hearing is for possible disbarrment from the Florida Bar, meaning he'd effectively no longer be a lawyer. The effect this has on the ruling just handed down is he's likely to not find a lawyer willing to file anything on his behalf. We'll likely hear of him being jailed for contempt shortly, since he's not going to let this stifle his efforts.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Lordlundar told it far better than I could.

Since we're already in Check It Out, I'll include a link to a Scott Ramsoomair (of Video Game Cats fame) recording e-mails between himself and Jack Thompson that more or less show the guy being...less than intellectually stellar. I think it was in reference to Comic 163...which I won't link because it's mildly NSFW, I think, but it's easy enough to find on his site.

Basically, the guy's brain took a left turn at Albuquerque and never made it back.

http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php

[lordlundar]

Yeah, I contemplated Scott's discussion with him, but it was relatively lightweight. Thompson has been after Penny arcade multiple times, and has been a consistent pain for Dennis and anyone on Gamepolitics.

[Rapscallion]

I do believe you're referring to comic 158 instead of 163. Still pretty amusing, and definitely NSFW.

Rapscallion

[MystyGlyttyr]

I wasn't sure which, heh, I assumed it had to do with Hot Coffee. Either way.

I've seen the Penny Arcade stuff, but I'm just more amazed by the absolute feeble-mindedness apparent in the one-line responses he was sending back and forth with Scott. Honest to God, he sounds like my grandmother did after she had a massive stroke and wouldn't be convinced that she was the one who'd just dumped a gallon of milk on the floor. "No no no!" Just like a two-year-old. It would be sad if it weren't so...sad.

[Toujin]

I heard about this guy from a friend of mine, I can't help but think that one day he's going to go off the deep end and do something terrible if he isn't stopped. But that's just my opinion.

I'd love to see Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice take this guy or someone like him on in court, that would make for an interesting case...

[CaptainJaneway]

I have heard of that asshole. He went after the Sims a couple years ago.

It put the Sims community up in arms because he was threatening Ea with a lawsuit.

I think his issue was removing the censor blur when the Sims went to the bathroom or took a shower or decided to wash up in the kitchen sink naked.

I think when the next expansion had come out they made it next to impossible to remove the censor blur. Of course if you are in the Sims community then just give the hackers a few days to find a work around.

If any here has played the Sims then you know what the game is like.

There are mods out there it alter the Sims appearance and put in the naughty bits and such but you have to go and actively seek that stuff out.

Otherwise, under the Sims clothing they are like Barbie dolls.

There were a few people that had contacted him and tried to have a civil conversation but it degraded into a lot of cursing and unintelligible gibberish.

[lordlundar]

I heard about this guy from a friend of mine, I can't help but think that one day he's going to go off the deep end and do something terrible if he isn't stopped.

You should read the coverage on his bar disciplinary hearing. It's comedy gold!