Jack Thompson goes mental… again

For those of you who don’t know who Jack Thompson is he is an “anti-video game’s attorney from the good old U.S of A.

Following the recent decission in America to give Manhunt 2 an “M” (mature) rating, Jack Thompson went mental again with a series of e-mails to Take Two Interactive. I have posted the emails below…

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

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SOURCES:GamePolitics.com
Destructoid.com

Welcome to Emo

Thanks to Tim for finding this. Great stuff….

Emo

Damn Emos are getting everywhere

Chris is a Nazi (fact)

Chris is a Nazi, because he doesn’t care that 62,537,400 people died (on all sides) during World War II.

According to Wikipedia, 64% of allied casulaties were from the Soviet Union. Chris’ reasoning for this, is that “they obviously aren’t very good fighters”. Another interesting fact is that the US and UK combined only make up 4% of allied casualties. This further emphasises the massive loses suffered by the Soviets.

Buying GTA

I had to go into town today to exchange the PS2 that i purchased for Christoph on friday. Basically, it didn’t work, and i wasn’t prepared to shed out £65 for a piece of junk.

Anyway, we got the PS2 exchanged… and the replacement works (at the moment).

Whilst we were in Gamestation Christoph decided that he wanted to buy GTA: Liberty City Stories. He went up to the counter, where the man serving asked the predictable question “do you have any ID?”. Seeing as neither of us had any we had to leave the shop without the said game.

We decided we would go to the independent games shop in town (its near the Basingstoke Gazette building, but i forget its name). I had never been in there before, but we went in and found a new copy of GTA:LCS for £14.99. I went up to the counter and handed over the game…. then the guy asks “how old are you?”. I lied and said i was 18. Then he asks for ID, and i tell him “i don’t have any on me”. Much to my surprise he carrys on with the sale of the game, but this guy obviously wants to the get the better of me. Just as i am about to hand over the money he says “whats you date of birth?”. Now i have to think fast, i wasn’t prepared for such a difficult question. As i struggle to remember my actual date of birth i can see a grin forming on the guys face. I was under pressure and struggled to process all this information. “Err… 24th November….19….err… 87″ i said. He really didn’t seem convinced by this, but he was obviously pretty desperate for a sale as he sold me the game anyway.

The moral of this story is. If you are going to buy an 18 rated game/DVD always make sure you are prepared to answer any potentially difficult questions.

M.L.L.C

The M.L.L.C (massively long legged crew), is a support group set up by Christoph and I, to help people suffering from the effects of having stupidly long legs.

Having long legs isn’t all fun and games, in fact it has quite a lot of down sides. For example…

• Using puplic transport can be a pain, especially the buses, which appear to have been designed for people no taller than Odd Job from the 007 films.
• Airplanes are also very difficult to cope with. I myself have to sit at the end of the row so that i can stretch out my long legs.
• The purchasing of trousers is also more difficult than you might expect. In an ideal world i would be able to buy trousers with a 38in leg. But the longest i can seem to find is 34in.

The M.L.L.C is here to help, so if you feel that your life has been affected by your massive legs, or if you feel discriminated against, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Dave

Paris O RLY ?

The original background picture was taken by me at Barcelona airport. When i saw it, i immediately got my camera out and took a picture.

It was then pretty obvious what i had to do with the image.

Stupid Sarah

As some of you may know i recently went on holiday to Barcelona, but don’t worry, im not going to bore you with a post telling you what i did. If you care you can ask me.

Anyway, this post is more related to the journey to Barcelona and the stupidity of my sister Sarah. We were sitting on the aeroplane bored and with nothing to do. So i get talking to Sarah about an episode of Little Britain that i had seen the previous night. I recalled to Sarah a joke from the programme that i had found funny…..

“airshows have been held in Britain since Medieval times, but they only really became popular with the invention of the aeroplane”.

Weather or not you are a fan of Little Britain, i would hope that the majority of you would understand the joke. But not Sarah, it went straight over her head. She came out with some daft comment like “thats stupid because they didn’t have aeroplanes in medieval times” , and totally missing the whole point of the joke. As you can imagine this led to some serious piss taking and riddicule by me.

Oh the Pain

As I was walking into town today with Mark, Tim and Joe we started compiling a list of the most painful things that can possible happen to you. Here is some of the stuff that we came up with…

1. Getting hit in the balls by a football. This is without doubt the worst possible pain that anyone can experience. Not only does it make your balls feeling like they are bleeding, but it also feels like something is twisting at your intestines and kidneys.
2. Chili in the eye. This has happened to me before and boy does it hurt. I had been cutting up some chilis, when i got an itch in one of my eyes. Without thinking about what i was doing i rubbed my eye. The pain was unbelieveable, but it wasn’t an ordinary pain, it was a burning pain, almost like someone has poured lava onto my face.
3. Basketball hitting you on the end of the finger. If this has ever happened to you, then you will know how much it hurts. The main problem is that it is a lasting pain, due to the bruising that you get on the joints of your fingers.
4. Cramp. Cramp is one of those things that sneeks up on you when you least expect it. Fortunately the pain doesn’t last too long.
5. Getting a staple in the finger. It hurts and its pretty messy as well. Removing the staple will result in blood leaking out all over the place.
6. Child Birth. Personally i’ve never had to go through this, but i though i would put it in an number 6 because women seem to make a big fuss about it.
7. Stubbing your toe. A short sharp pain, that results in the victim hopping about madly clutching their foot and swearing a lot.
8. Getting hit in the face by a football. This stings a lot, and if you are unlucky enough it get hit in the nose then you may have a nose-bleed as well.
9. Having a dump. Yes, you did read that correctly. One occations having a poo can be rather painfull, especially if its a really fat one, or if you have had a vindaloo the night before.
10. Burning your hand on a hot plate/pan. Even the smallest of burns can result in a lot of pain, and even if you leave your hand under the tap for ages the pain still doesn’t go away. You just have to put up with it.