Utah "Games As Porn" Bill Temporarily (?) Pulled
According to the Herald-Journal online, Representative Wyatt has pulled HB50, the newly reintroduced "Games Are Porn" bill, from the House Public Technology and Utilities agenda today. Citing Constitutional concerns, he says he intends to re-evaluate the bill to make sure it'll pass Constitutional muster. He's apparently meeting with Utah A.G. Mark Shurtleff to discuss options.

The original bill, introduced last year, categorizes violence in videogames as obscene and amends the "Materials Harmful to Minors" law such that videogame violence is treated the same as pornography in this state. Good ol' "Wacky Jacky" Thompson apparently helped pen the bill, and found a dupe in the form of former Representative Hogue to push the bill through. I It expired quietly in the state senate last year. A much cheaper way to go than the similar Luisiana bill, which went through a costly court battle before being ruled unconstitutional.

I feel hopeful that Rep. Wyatt, who is a lawyer, is taking Constitutional concerns seriously. And I am very happy that he is meeting with Mark Shurtleff, who has proven to be an ally of the ESRB system, and while he's personally opposed to extremely violent videogames, he has expressed the opinion that it is a matter for education, not legislation.

Although his final statement in the article DOES have me worried. Rep. Wyatt says, "Any bill that somebody brings forward with the support of their constituents is not a waste of time, because they raise issues and create awareness." Excuse me, but haphazardly making laws as a way to "send messages" sounds like VERY poor government. The whole point of Representative Democracy, as envisioned by the founding fathers, was to prevent that kind of "mob rule" so that cooler, wiser heads could prevail. If you are taking that attitude, we might as well go to a direct democracy system.

Well, okay. There's my naive political rant for the day. Maybe the week. If I'm lucky, the whole month. Gee, I suddenly feel the urge to play some Democracy for some reason...

But I am pleased with this turn of events, and it sounds like Wyatt is behaving reasonably. This is a bit better than the horrible job they did last year, where they rubber-stamped "No Constitutional Impact Concerns" and "No Private Industry Impact Concerns" concerns on the bill right after hearing testimonies as to those very concerns that same day...

As always, a hat tip to GamePolitics.com which almost always has the latest dirt on ... well, games and politics!

Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:11 AM (Permalink)