Video Games Protected as Free Speech

In a landmark case overturning a previous decision stating that video games do not qualify for free speech, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today declared that they are in fact protected by the First Amendment.

If the First Amendment is versatile enough to 'shield [the] painting of Jackson Pollock, music of Arnold Schoenberg, or Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll,' we see no reason why the pictures, graphic design, concept art, sounds, music, stories, and narrative present in video games are not entitled to a similar protection," the court said in its ruling. "The mere fact that they appear in a novel medium is of no legal consequence."

The previous case in St. Louis County had evidently argued that stories were incosequential to video-games because players can skip right through them. The Appeals Court disagreed:

"The fact that modern technology has increased viewer control does not render movies unprotected by the First Amendment, and equivalent player control likewise should not automatically disqualify modern video games."

Obviously, there's some gamers on that 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, or they're at least smart enough to listen to their gaming kids when it came time to research this case.

Looks like we won one today.

Comments

[Justin]

Huzzah! This is a heartening tale. And great timing! As other courts and congresses consider laws and regulations on specific forms of video game speech (mostly violence) it's good to have some legal language that frames games as speech so strongly. Thanks for finding the juicy bits and sharing them!

[Justin]

Here's a PDF of the opinion. Upon reading further, the 8th circuit not only supported the idea that video games are speech, they also claim that the whole video games cause harmful psychological side-effects line of reasoning is "simply unsupported on the record." That makes this case a real one-two punch against kneejerk blaming videogames for social ills.

It seems obvious to me, as a casual student of media and politics. Hopefully the courts wisdom will resound throughout the land, and deepen the discussion about videogames past "Games are bad." In the United States, you can't simply regulate games without considering 1st Amendment/free speech issues, and if you want to claim that violence in video games warps young minds, you'll have to put up conclusive evidence.

[jane]

thank goodness there is finally some rational thinking on this issue. of course, it merely (legally) affirms what we all already knew, but it's a great step nonetheless. great post, Bowler.

[Justin]

Here's a PDF text of the original Limbaugh decision that was just overturned.

[Exick]

Here's a PDF text of the original Limbaugh decision that was just overturned.

Yikes, why does that name trigger my gag reflex? Oh, right.

[Thad]

I love this site, I love you guys. Thanks so much for the great info. The washington thing had me really skeptical about whether or not this ruling would be overturned. We were all waiting for it, thank god it happened.

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