Louisiana video game law chucked out

According to Ars Technica, the law, which was passed by the Louisiana State Legislature in June, criminalised the sale of some video games to those under 18.

However the Entertainment Software Association filed a lawsuit, which resulted in a temporary injunction against its enforcement.

The law defined a violent video game as one which appealed to the minor's morbid interest in violence according to "contemporary community standards". A violent game would depict violence inappropriate to minors according to "prevailing standards" in the adult community, and lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

Judge James Brady was unconvinced from the start. In approving the temporary injunction against the law he said that the evidence that was submitted to the legislature in connection with the bill was sparse and unreliable.

He heard studies about the connections between video game and real-world violence but dismissed these as tenuous and speculative.

Now by making the injunction permanent, Brady has consigned the law to the dustbin of history. Thompson said that the Louisiana Attorney General's office efforts to defend the law was incompetent and compromised.

More here. µ