geekosystem

The U.S. Supreme Court gave a unanimous ruling today in the case of Antoine Jones, who received a conviction of life in prison after evidence from a GPS tracking device in his car connected him to a house full of money and drugs. That conviction was overturned by a lower cour, and the Supreme Court agreed. The court ruled that GPS devices constitute a search, and as such require a search warrant before being used in an investigation. For those of us concerned about being digitally tailed by the cops, this is a pretty big win.

In an open letter published on the Video Game Voter's Network website, Stan Lee has thrown his support behind the game merchants of Schwarzenegger, Gov. of CA V. Entertainment Merchants, Et Al., the case headed for the Supreme Court which will give a federal ruling on whether it is constitutional to prohibit minors from purchasing violent games. Lee makes very appropriate comparisons between the current mainstream worry about children playing violent games and the same fears about crime and horror comics in the nineteen fifties. Hopefully the public's fears of video gaming can be resolved without a restrictive self-imposed system of censorship that artistically hobbled the industry for a decade and a half. We've excerpted some of Lee's letter below:

The Introductory Cataclysm Patch is Live For WoW Player Testing (WoW.com) The ESA's Brief to the Supreme Court in Videogames Violence Trial (TheESA.com) Rainn Wilson is Kick-Ass, Kinda (Blastr) Did Internet Founders Intend Net Neutrality? (Spoiler Warning: YES.) (Wired) Disney Princesses As Superheroes, Again (Brodie H. Brockie) How Not To Make A Fire Tornado (flashmodin) You Can Get Stem Cells From Wisdom Teeth (Medical Daily) (image via Geeks Are Sexy.)

In 2005, the state of California introduced a $1,000 fine for any merchant who sold a mature or higher rated video game to a minor. Since then, the Entertainment Merchants Association and others have proved to lower courts that the law is unconstitutional.

Now, the Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to review the case of Schwarzenegger, Gov. of CA V. Entertainment Merchants, Et Al., guaranteeing a federal decision on whether regulating the sale of video games based on their content is constitutionally sound.