f13.net forums - Yet Another Awesome Jack Thompson Thread

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July 26, 2025, 04:26:49 PM

we're back, baby

It seem Jack is at it again. Here is a series of emails between Jack and the VP of Take 2 Games.

http://gamepolitics.com/2007/08/31/take-two-warns-jack-thompson-over-manhunt-2/

Quote

From: Jack Thompson

Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 4:55 PM

Subject: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

Dear Mr. Zelnick and Mr. Feder:

Congratulations on receiving a “Mature” rating for Manhunt 2. You’ll live to regret it (trust me), so enjoy it while you can.

I want to bring to your attention the fact that at www.rockstargames.com anyone of any age can order Manhunt 2 and receive it, with no age verification whatsoever. Asking a 14-year-old if he’s 17 is not age verification, now is it?

You also know that the use of a bank card as an age verifier is a violation of all bank card agreements, right?

Govern yourselves accordingly, if you can.

Regards, Jack Thompson

———————————-

From: Gena Feist

To: Jack Thompson

Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:47 PM

Subject: FW: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

Mr. Thompson,Your statements regarding our practices are false, as you know or should have known.

The Take Two website verifies age in two ways. First, consumers who purchase M or RP rated games certify that they are at least 17 years of age. Numerous websites use the same method for verifying age in connection with sales of movies and games. Second, we verify age through the use of a credit card number in connection with a transaction. Such transaction based verification is acceptable to both credit card companies and the FTC (see, e.g. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.shtm).

We demand that you cease making these false statements about our online sales practices. Your dissemination of knowingly false statements for the purpose of adversely affecting Take-Two’s business is actionable and we reserve all of our rights under the settlement agreement and state and federal law.

Not only are your statements clearly false, but they were made in an email publicly disseminated to both the FTC and the press. Please be assured that I am happy to answer any questions you have concerning our practices in a private communications. It is for this very reason that our settlement agreement designates a legal contact for you at Take Two.

If you continue to make false statements to an audience of press and public officials, however, we will have no choice but to take action against you.

Sincerely,
Gena

———————————–

From: Jack Thompson

To: Gena Feist (T2 NY)

Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 3:39 PM

Subject: Re: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

As you should be aware, credit cards cannot be used to verify the age of buyers. Kids have credit cards, and they use parents’ credit cards. You have then got to be kidding me.

Take-Two is welcome to use age verification software that is available for on-line alcohol, firearm and other purchases of adult material. Stop lying.

Thanks

Jack Thompson, Attorney

———————————–

From: “Gena Feist (T2 NY)”
To: “Jack Thompson”
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 5:30 PM
Subject: RE: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

Jack, give it a break. I am happy to answer your questions and correct any misapprehensions that you have but I will not engage in this type of discussion with you. I am not a liar, I didn’t threaten you, and I wont get roped into this type of dialogue. Don’t bother writing back because I will not answer any further communications along these lines.

————————————

From: Jack Thompson
To: Gena Feist
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 5:28 PM
Subject: Re: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

Surely you are not taking the position that I am not allowed to communicate with the government about Take-Two’s actions, are you? If you are, then please know that that position renders the agreement unenforceable as a matter of public policy, since the law is settled that no agreement that restricts a citizen’s petition rights to the government is enforceable.

Are you seriously suggesting that an agreement that does not restrict me in that fashion does restrict me? Becasue [sic] if you are, then I have a new civil rights claim agains [sic] Take-Two.

Jack Thompson

———————————–

From: Gena Feist
To: “Jack Thompson”
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

Jack,

I appreciate that you directed this message to me alone. In regards to your comments below, I understand that you disagree with the use of a credit card transaction as age verification but it is accepted by the FTC and the retail industry as verification of age.

You are on notice that we use two industry and government accepted forms of age verification. Please do not repeat your false claims publicly or make claims that I/the company are lying about this matter.

We entered into the settlement agreement because we did not want to engage in unnecessary litigation with you, but I assure you that we will enforce the terms of the agreement if necessary and that any suit will include a claim for our legal fees under paragraph 11.

Sincerely,
Gena

———————————-

From: “Jack Thompson”
To: “Gena Feist (T2 NY)”
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2

What is wrong with you? You threaten me with enforcement of the agreement, and I ask you how I have violated it. Are you nuts?

Jack Thompson, Attorney

———————————–

Rest assured, I would love to get into a public debate with this silly cracker.

He is fucking batshit. Not likr thast is a surprise, but still. I hope they sue him into the poor house.

How great would it be if Ann Coulter and Jack Thompson had an offspring. I know it would be hard, what with Ann starting life as a man and all that. But still. Their offspring could offer more entertainment that any other single person.

Jack thinks he has the right to make false statements to the government?

I'm not a lawyer but I don't think that is very likely to be true.

Can someone please send this guy a demo reel of Persona 3 gameplay? I really want to see the resulting stroke on Youtube.

Quote from: Rasix on August 31, 2007, 01:54:37 PM

Can someone please send this guy a demo reel of Persona 3 gameplay? I really want to see the resulting stroke on Youtube.

My impression of Jack is that the sort of stroke he'd have over it isn't the sort you'd want to see.

You'll live to regret it? Couldn't that be considered an honest to god threat?

This guy's endless fun.

Quote from: WayAbvPar on August 31, 2007, 12:35:09 PM

He is fucking batshit. Not likr thast is a surprise, but still. I hope they sue him into the poor house.

Jesus Christ- what chimp took over my keyboard and posted that? I have seen better typing from text message addicts.

Quote from: Azazel on September 04, 2007, 02:47:50 PM

u r l8
whr r u?

i hrd u liek mudkips

Samwise. Best avatar evar.

We now return to your regular scheduled programming.

Awesome Avavar, less awesome size... f13.net must hurt serving that up.

I don't know what the avatar is from and feel left out.

There's a hint in his title.

But, not to be a dick, it's from The Prisoner.

Never saw the original show, the Iron Maiden song rocked though.

Two waaaay different things.

But you probably knew that.

I only recently watched the show for the first time (the girl, clever girl that she is, has been getting it for us on Netflix one disc at a time). As soon as I saw that scene I knew I had to have it as an avatar.

The Prisoner is some of the cleverest writing I've ever watched.

And, not to go all art-fag on it, most people simply don't get it.

Great show.

Quote from: Ironwood on September 06, 2007, 02:44:10 AM

The Prisoner is some of the cleverest writing I've ever watched.

And, not to go all art-fag on it, most people simply don't get it.

Great show.

I have been working my way through the series. And thing about how to make it a MMO!

*hides*

There was a Role-playing supplement.

Seriously.

Quote from: Ironwood on September 07, 2007, 10:47:10 AM

There was a Role-playing supplement.

Seriously.

Link?

He sure is that _special_ kind of crazy.

Quote

Jack Thompson Wants to Subpoena George Bush

Embattled attorney Jack Thompson filed documents with a federal court in Florida yesterday, requesting to subpoena President George W. Bush for a deposition in what appears to be an increasingly desperate fight to retain Thompson’s license to practice law.

The controversial attorney, facing a pair of ethics complaints (see below) filed by the Florida Bar, will stand trial before a referee appointed by the Florida Supreme Court beginning on November 26th.

Thompson is currently suing that referee, Judge Dava Tunis, along with the entire Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Bar in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

So where does The Decider (seen at left in full Madden regalia) fit into the case?

That’s not really clear. But the linkage - at least in Thompson’s mind - seems to be that the Blank Rome law firm represents video game industry defendants in Strickland vs. Sony, an Alabama lawsuit alleging that an 18-year-old was acting under the influence of Grand Theft Auto when he killed two police officers and a police dispatcher in 2004. And Blank Rome - or at least some of its partners - are also lobbyists as well as heavyweight Republican donors.

Thompson, by the way, was thrown off the Strickland case by an Alabama Circuit Court judge in November, 2005. In a document filed yesterday with the U.S. District Court, Thompson writes:

I have already sent the George and Jeb Bush subpoenas to Referee Tunis for her signature. She may run on this, but she can’t hide. She must sign the subpoenas, as her filing [of the Thompson Bar complaints] with the federal court has made the testimony I seek in the depositions of both men highly relevant to my Bar defense.

If the President’s position is that I do not get to depose him while he is in office, then I would note that Paula Jones’ lawyers were able to convince a federal judge otherwise. If President Bush is successful is convincing the court that I must wait until he leaves office, that’s something I am prepared to do.

Just when I think the guy can't be anymore full of himself, I read the post above.

Edit: Although a part of me fears that he loses his ability to practice law simply because then, he becomes completely unchained. Christ can you imagine this guy loose on the public, leading picket lines etc.? Hell, he'll call himself a martyr to protect our children.

I don't think it's even worth discussing the merits of any legal arguments this guy makes anymore. He continues to advance the same arguments that have already failed, to the point where the courts are assessing the game companies' legal fees against him for repeatedly raising these dead claims. Courts nationwide have found video games to be speech, and that their content is subject to the protections of speech.

At some point, this guy was taken seriously as a pundit on the issue of games and violence. While news organizations are obligated to provide a balanced assessment of the argument, it should be very clear that this guy is neither a legitimate expert on the law as it relates to video games nor a credible source. It is irresponsible of them to provide him with a false appearance of being a credentialed expert by putting him on the air.

As far as I'm concerned this guy can keep sending out inflammatory e-mails if he wants to, though if he makes defamatory remarks or causes Take 2 to incur legal expenses defending claims he knows to be frivolous, he should be required to pay the resulting damages or legal costs. But if major media outlets are continuing to give this guy air time, it would be worthwhile to send them a polite message containing various statements by Mr. Thompson which they may be unaware of, that suggest that he is seriously unbalanced.

And while Thompson is a lone nutcase tilting at windmills and wielding bogus legal arguments, it should be noted that his tactic of pursuing nuisance lawsuits for coercive purposes is being used very effectively by the music and film industries to combat downloaders, and their tactic is, in my view, every bit as reprehensible as Thompson's, moreso, since their targets, often college students or teenagers, do not have the resources to retain counsel to aggressively fight back.

Holy Shit, I'm rooting for Jack Thompson.

Seriously, I'm rooting for Thompson to get the Bush subpoena issued, just so Bush can claim executive privilege. We need one good crazy batshit insane asshole to pursue getting Bush on the stand and knocking down executive privilege, and apparently Congress doesn't have anyone batshit insane enough to do that.

Quote from: Samwise on September 07, 2007, 02:28:09 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner#Role-playing_games

Wow, i'm going to have to look for the books. My friend that introduced me to the show will get a kick out of this, lol. I am surprised such a short lived show garnered so many outlets, and fans.

Someone should send this study to ole Jack:

M Rated games sell more

On another note, some parts of the study were unintentionally hilarious like "higher rated games tend to sell better." Uh..yeah. Duh.

Are we going to file that next to the exhaustive, 10 year, blue ribbon panel report finding that yes, sex sells?
Oh. And we can stack it next to that massive tome in the Library: Nebraska, Now With More Corn Than Ever!

But I'd keep it away from the Nobel-worthy work known as: Gravity, The Dangers Of Sudden Velocity Removal Syndrome, And You.

Quote from: HaemishM on September 10, 2007, 08:50:33 AM

That would put a perfect cherry on this whole surreal situation.

Quote from: Riggswolfe on September 11, 2007, 01:50:49 PM

Well, M rated games sell better because there is a huge volume of garbage, and very little of it is M rated. You've probably got 200 random poker titles that are all rated E or T. If you controlled for games rated higher than 80/100 on metacritic, or even just for games with an SRP of $59.99 I would be surprised if M rated games still beat out other games.

I don't know if this is real but man it would be great if true, and very Rockstar.

Here is the quote from Jackie Boy.

Quote

I have this morning read with interest an article on page 80 and 81 of the September 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine which was generated when, according to its author, Rockstar Games “stopped by the Game Informer offices for an impromptu hour-long gameplay session with the Xbox 360 version of the game.”

The showcasing play of the game to Game Informer revealed that the first killing mission of the “hero” of the game, Niko, is to kill a certain lawyer. When Niko comes into this lawyer’s office, having used subterfuge to do so, Niko pulls a gun on the lawyer who says, “that the firm supports the second amendment and that ‘Guns don’t kill people. Video games do.’”

…The fact that the lawyer, killed on Niko’s first mission, would bring up video games, makes it clearly a reference to me… This is not the first time Rockstar Games and Take Two have targeted me in this fashion. Take Two references to me as a bisexual pedophile on its corporate website…

ou have until five o’clock P.M. this Friday… to inform me that you are going to delete the above references and any other references that could reasonably be construed to be references to me in Grand Theft Auto IV and any other video games that are pending release…

Now you have descended this low - using one of your games to threaten my physical safety… Failure to comply with the deadline… will result in my having to take necessary and proper means to stop release of the game which targets me personally… given the copycatting of violent games…