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Gamasutra article: Take-Two, Thompson settle suit (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13610)

Bout freaking time someone was able to tell Thompson to stfu and have it stick...

Good for Take-Two.

Anyone want to bet on how quickly Thompson violates the settlement?

Depends what penalties he'll suffer for doing so..

Why did they let him settle?

Because they essenially just want him to STFU.

Presumably cause they got everything they wanted from him.

They're cutting off one of the best Marketing and PR people they had.

 :wink:

Being aware of gamepolitics.com can only bring me despair and ruin.

I'm pretty sure he's still allowed to make press statements.  Just not file suit.

No - he can still talk about the games they make.

Ya, he can go blather on about content all he wants in the press. What this seems to be mostly about it getting Thompson to stop harassing their distributors, retailers and employees with threats of litigation.

Christ, a line of people with no sense of humour...

 :wink:

Man's gotta make a living.

So basically - he can keep his first ammendment rights, but can't sue or threaten to sue.

There's some fun stuff on it. Like the kid who thought it would be fun to send Jack Thompson an email asking what video games he should use to train himself to kill people and got arrested for his wit.


http://gamepolitics.com/2007/04/23/teen-arrested-for-making-va-tech-copycat-threat-to-jack-thompson/

Which one of you was it, and how long were you detained and questioned for?

Poorly worded. I would've run it past our resident lawyers first :P

I agree. I'd write something like...

Dear Jack,

I'm looking forward to starting my new hobby - hunting lawyers in psychotic game-inspired rage but not sure what game title will train me best. Any ideas?

Sincerely,

I know it would be very unoriginal of me to just rip the kid off, but I wonder how it would turn out if I sent Jack Thompson a letter roughly along the same lines. But, more to the tune of "I'm can't really get a gun due to Canadian law, but I'd sure like to get ready for the day I can shoot people. Suggestions?" Could some bureau from the states come knocking on my door? If the mounties came it would just be a bigger punchline to my joke.

It's really not a good idea to play games like that. Even though it's an obvious joke it's likely to end up in a file somewhere. NiX, you especially shouldn't do it unless you're hoping to get stopped at the border and strip searched or denied entry next time you want to go the US.

Nah, the mounties would just get the US to put you on the "rendition to Syria" list.

Considering how paranoid the government is, even though Canada is better, it is not a good idea to play around with jokes of that vein.

But if we could organize a campaign to send him thousands of letters like that...

... they'd add a new wing to Gitmo.

Heh.

It'd be smarter to say something like "I'm looking to expand my lifestyle" or something equally vague, rather than "I'm going to kill people".  With the former, there's really no threat at all except what the reader imagines.  With the latter, you're clearly stating your intent to break the law and murder people, even though it's in jest.