yotogi.net

grandma and her gun:

as much as i am a staunch free speech advocate, it's crap like "hot coffee" that make free speech an ever more endangered liberty. this is a prime example of exercising freedom without a thought to the attendant responsibility inherent in such an exercise. to put it in another context, we only have a certain amount of free-speech-points, so we ought not squander them before we arm the opponents of free speech too well.

that said...i'm not sure that grandma is such a good test case for suing take two/rockstar, as she clearly disregarded the label when she bought it. how can she claim that she was misled by the labeling of the game when it was clearly labeled unsuitable for kids under 17? That's like arguing that the speed limit sign said 65 instead of 55, when you got clocked at 110, and you were misled.

i think the maker of the game ought to be liable for putting in content that exceeds what was indicated on the label, because that undermines a parent's ability to do their part to police what their kids are exposed to, and because it damages the public's faith in the labeling system. A public that doesn't trust the labeling system is easily persuaded to permit more censorship.

*grumble*