Posted on 07/27/2005 11:16:08 AM PDT by TheOtherOne
Grandmother Sues Game Maker Over Hidden Sex in 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'
Published: Jul 27, 2005 NEW YORK (AP) - A woman upset that she bought the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" for her 14-year-old grandson without knowing it contained hidden, sexually explicit scenes sued the manufacturer Wednesday on behalf of consumers nationwide.
Florence Cohen, 85, of New York, said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the game's manufacturer, Rockstar Games, and its parent company, New York-based Take Two Interactive Software Inc., engaged in false, misleading and deceptive practices.
She sought unspecified damages on behalf of herself and all consumers nationwide, saying the company should give up its profits from the game for what amounted to false advertising, consumer deception and unfair business practices.
Cohen said in the suit that she bought the game in late 2004 for her grandson when it was rated "M" for mature, for players 17 and older. According to the suit, she directed that it be taken away from her grandson, which was done.
The game was released in October with an "M" rating. After a storm of negative publicity about the hidden scenes, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, an industry group responsible for rating games, changed the rating to "AO" for adults only.
Laurence D. Paskowitz, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Cohen, said no parent would knowingly buy an adult-only video game for their children.
"They should really make sure this doesn't happen again," he said. "The least this company can do is offer refunds."
Hidden areas in video games that can be unlocked with special codes or modifications are not uncommon.
Take Two Interactive initially said the scenes were not part of the retail version of the game but later admitted they were.
A message left for a company spokesman was not immediately returned. On Tuesday, Take-Two announced that it had been notified by the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Advertising Practices that it was conducting an inquiry into the game's advertising claims.
The company said it planned to cooperate fully with the probe.
"Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive regret that consumers may have been exposed to content that was not intended to be accessible in the playable version of 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'," it said in a statement.
The company said it had halted production of the game in the controversial form and was working on a version of the game without the hidden sexual content.
"Going forward, the company will refine the process by which it edits games and will enhance the protection of its game code to prevent such future modifications," it said.
Earlier this week, the House voted 355-21 for a resolution asking the FTC to investigate the company. Last week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., asked the FTC to investigate Rockstar, saying the company had "gamed the ratings system" by concealing sex scenes in the game that can be unlocked by computer programs available on the Internet.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Best Buy Co. and Circuit City Stores Inc. have pulled the game - last year's top-seller among console games - from their shelves following the rating change.
---
On the Net:
Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov
Entertainment Software Ratings Board: http://www.esrb.org
Take Two Interactive: http://www.take2games.com
AP-ES-07-27-05 1355EDT
Thank you for verifying my insight.
I certainly don't agree with everything he says (hell - I don't agree with every thing I say), but his style is certainly unique, to say the least
1. I agree this game was always for mature audiences.
2. I also think anyone who gave this game to a kid is an idiot.
3. The game should have been rated AO not M. That is a distinction that is apparently lost on you. It would be like rating an X movie as R. They are both for adults, yet the rating signifies different levels of content. Get it?
Why do you insist the game was rated properly when that is not even the position of the game company? Why are you against properly rating games based on the content in them? Why are you defending a rating that the game industry has disavowed?
What does H. Clinton putting this lady up to this have anything to do with you "thinking for yourself"?
No Fraud they only way that anyone knew of the hidden stuff was because someone did a hack to unlock it. Most games have hidden areas,And just why is Grandma suiting in Fed court and not state court?
And I guess I am cahoots with everyone I have ever donated to? You have turned a donation into a conspiracy, perhaps you need another layer of tinfoil.
A nice little commentary on this subject:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ticket_to_hell
Can't we get these people on collusion or something? This is so blatant it has to be a set up.
Hillary and Chucky sittin in a tree,
c-o-l-l-u-d-ing
First comes fraud (Hillary elected) then comes outrage
Then America plunges back to the stone age.
My CJ Johnson just started dating Millie, who prefers that I wear a gimp suit on dates.
| Ackerman Aderholt Akin Alexander Allen Andrews Baca Baird Baker Baldwin Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Bass Beauprez Berry Biggert Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Blackburn Blunt Boehlert Boehner Bonilla Bonner Bono Boozman Boren Boswell Boucher Boustany Boyd Bradley (NH) Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brown (OH) Brown (SC) Burgess Burton (IN) Butterfield Calvert Camp Cantor Capito Capps Capuano Cardin Cardoza Carnahan Carson Carter Case Castle Chabot Chandler Chocola Cleaver Clyburn Coble Conaway Cooper Costa Cox Crenshaw Crowley Cubin Cuellar Culberson Cummings Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (IL) Davis (KY) Davis (TN) Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Tom Deal (GA) DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DeLay Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Dicks Dingell Doggett Doyle Drake Dreier Duncan Edwards Ehlers Emanuel Emerson Engel English (PA) Eshoo Etheridge Evans Everett Farr Ferguson Filner Fitzpatrick (PA) Foley Forbes Ford Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gilchrest Gillmor Gingrey Gohmert |
Gonzalez Goode Goodlatte Gordon Granger Graves Green (WI) Green, Al Green, Gene Gutknecht Hall Harman Harris Hart Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hefley Hensarling Herger Herseth Higgins Hinchey Hoekstra Holden Holt Honda Hooley Hoyer Hunter Hyde Inglis (SC) Inslee Israel Issa Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jindal Johnson (CT) Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Kanjorski Kaptur Keller Kelly Kennedy (MN) Kennedy (RI) Kildee Kind King (IA) Kingston Kirk Kline Knollenberg Kolbe Kucinich Kuhl (NY) LaHood Langevin Lantos Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latham LaTourette Leach Levin Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Lipinski LoBiondo Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Lucas Lungren, Daniel E. Lynch Mack Maloney Manzullo Marchant Markey Marshall Matheson Matsui McCarthy McCaul (TX) McCollum (MN) McCotter McCrery McGovern McHenry McHugh McIntyre McKeon McKinney McMorris McNulty Meehan Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Melancon Menendez Mica Michaud Millender-McDonald Miller (FL) Miller (NC) Miller, Gary Miller, George Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (KS) Moran (VA) Murphy Musgrave Myrick Nadler Napolitano |
Neal (MA) Neugebauer Ney Northup Norwood Nunes Oberstar Olver Osborne Otter Oxley Pallone Pascrell Pastor Pearce Pence Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Petri Pickering Pitts Platts Poe Pombo Pomeroy Porter Price (GA) Price (NC) Putnam Ramstad Rangel Regula Rehberg Reichert Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Ross Roybal-Allard Royce Ruppersberger Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Sabo Salazar Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Sanders Saxton Schakowsky Schiff Schwartz (PA) Schwarz (MI) Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Sensenbrenner Sessions Shadegg Shaw Sherman Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Simmons Simpson Skelton Slaughter Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Snyder Solis Spratt Stearns Stupak Sullivan Tancredo Tanner Tauscher Taylor (MS) Taylor (NC) Thomas Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thornberry Tiahrt Tierney Turner Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Upton Van Hollen Visclosky Walden (OR) Walsh Wamp Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Waxman Weiner Weller Westmoreland Wexler Whitfield Wicker Wilson (NM) Wilson (SC) Wolf Wu Wynn Young (AK) |
(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)
I finished the game wearing the gimp suit (and using the special purple weapon that came with it).
Correct, Hillary barks and the sheeple jump...yes, even Republicans, afraid to offend her Highness and her acolytes in the cultural elite.
Yeah, Tom DeLay jumps for Hillary. Seriously, you have your tinfoil on too tight.
Listen, it's quite simple, really.
Politicians being politicians; who could possibly be against this measure?...cleaning up these games. It's called populism.
I don't have to be wearing a tin-foil hat to see that a leftist lawyer put this old lady up to this suit. And seeing as how the Manhattan leftists are incestuous--this leftist lawyer is married to this leftist journalist whose brother is a Democrat operative--it's not a stretch to think that this suit is a put-up job to help H. Clinton.
When she comes out for more Border Patrol and better border protection will your knee-jerk thinking cause you to be against it?
thanx
so, the kid had to do some leg work.
And being a 14 year old gamer, he probably already knew where to go.
but the entire onus is, of course, on the gamemaker.
---- NAYS 21 ---
| Abercrombie Berkley Blumenauer Conyers Flake Frank (MA) Grijalva |
Hastings (FL) Johnson, E. B. Jones (OH) Lee Lewis (GA) McDermott Owens |
Paul Payne Serrano Stark Towns Velázquez Woolsey |
Cohen said in the suit that she bought the game in late 2004 for her grandson when it was rated "M" for mature, for players 17 and older.
I guess reading and comprehension were not her strong points.
So where is the CPS investigation for contributing to the delinquency of a minor by providing materials to her grandchild that are not age appropriate?
Sorry if I offend, but in my eyes this is just another witch-hunt, nanny-state, I'm-not-reponsible-for-my-own-idiocy frivolous lawsuit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.