Jack Banged Up?

This week Jack Thompson finds himself in the middle of an ethics trial in a Florida court that could result in his disbarment. The Florida Bar Association (FBA) is to look at several complaints regarding JT's professional conduct in his dealings with the video game industry. Disbarment is the revocation of a lawyer's ability to practice law or argue cases. Generally disbarment is imposed as a sanction for conduct indicating that an attorney is not fit to practice law. Music to Take Two's ears! Thompson's offer of a 90 day suspension of his license to practice law was rejected and the Judge now has until December 21st to rule.

Some of his previous exploits include issuing a proposal that offered a $10000 reward to anyone who would create a video game featuring Osaki Kim, a father whose son was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The game would feature Kim extracting brutal revenge on the video game industry itself, including beating game company executives to death, removing their heads and urinating on their brain stems.

Showing his complete lack of knowledge of how enterprising the PC gaming mod community is, it's no surprise that someone actually did just that. Not so surprising is that Jack then reneged on the promised $10000 donation to a charity of the modder's choice, saying that his original offer had been "satire", and therefore not a legitimate promise.

This is where Penny Arcade, the popular video game-themed online comic strip, entered the story. One of the co-creators of the strip, Mike "Gabe" Krahulik, emailed Jack Thompson and informed him that he thought his proposed $10000 charitable donation was pretty small in light of Penny Arcade's more than half a million dollars, raised as part of their "Child's Play" charity event. Unfortunately for Gabe, his email contained his phone number as part of the signature, and Jack took advantage of this to phone him directly. The phone call included a threat of a lawsuit if Gabe emailed him again. In response, Gabe sent a cheque to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in the amount of $10000 with the note "For Jack Thompson because Jack Thompson won't" on the bottom.

The threats then escalated. Jack faxed a letter to the Seattle Police Department claiming that Penny Arcade was "criminally harassing" him, insisting on the arrest of "this little extortion factory".

At this point, the nerds swung into action. Penny Arcade forum members wrote, edited and sent letters and faxes to the FBA detailing Thompson's activities and demanding a review of his license to practice law. Jack Thompson has already received a reprimand by the FBA for his antics in 1998.

Head over to the forum to vote on Jack's fate, but before you do here are some great JT quotes that'll help your decision...

"Honestly, are all of you gamers on drugs, or what?"

"You just watch. There is going to be a Columbine-times-10 incident, and everyone will finally get it. Either that, or some video gamer is going to go Columbine at some video game exec's expense or at E3, and then the industry will begin to realize that there is no place to hide, that it has trained a nation of Manchurian Children."

"Are you actually so confused that you think gamers have any influence on anyone? Gamers are considered by normal people to be cretins. Get used to it."

"I am a one-man violent video game wrecking crew"

"I love the smell of burning gamers in the morning."

"Do you need an IQ below room temp to be a gamer and post here?"

"These flowers were sent to harass me."

All excellent and mature stuff I think you'll agree and in no way chosen to sway your opinion ;)

The trial is in progress now on the GAMEOV3R Forum, don't miss the verdict