Politician Admits American Ratings Board Is Toothless
The whole problem arising from the controversy behind Take Two and Jack Thompson is not created by a legal system more than too willing to litigate. It stems from having an industry which is virtually unregulated. The irony of it is that the American system is indicative of the Australian system. This is what US Republican congressman Rep. Fred Upton said about the American ratings board:
"I guess I thought the FTC [US Ratings Board] would have had some more teeth than they apparently have ... I’m not at all happy ... In essence there are no consequences. None ... I would like to have thought that (Take-Two and Rockstar) would have been able to be fined for millions of dollars for the trash they put out across this country ... I am going to be looking to write legislation giving the FTC the authority to impose civil penalties."
As far as I am concerned if we have a free market economy then if manufacturers want to make "trash" and people buy it then that is the person's prerogative. That is why we live in a free society. This is why I apparently have my "freedom". You can't punish someone for making a bad product if people are prepared to pay for it. Why don't they spend more time regulating the industry where it needs to be regulated and punish developers and publishers for releasing products which are unfinished and require a massive amount of patching in order to be playable.
What is the alternative? We have created a capitalist system which is slowly loosing control of its industries. State based control is in essence what is seen as being one of the worst components of a Communist society. However, where is the medium? Look at AS in Australia. Another toothless industry regulator. You apparently can't have your cake and eat it too.
What is Rep. Fred Upton's response? This is a quote from a piece of legislation:
"It shall be unlawful ... to ... distribute ... any video game that contains a rating label… for that video game where the person, with the intent of obtaining a less restrictive age-based content rating, failed to disclose content of the video game that was required to be disclosed to the independent ratings organization ..."
Politicians rely on corporations and industry to provide them with money to run and maintain their political campaigns. A lot of corporations provide money to both sides of politics so they can push their own agendas. This is the way that corporations use their power as leverage over politicians. I will put any money on it that if this piece of legislation makes it to American parliament it will be heavily edited so that the teeth are taken out of it. This serves two purposes. It pleases the people as they believe that legislation has been introduced to regulate industry without them realising that industry have been involved in changing the legislation. And it pleases industry because they have used their power to leverage the result they wanted to maintain their status quo.
What do we do as consumers? If we don't like the product we don't buy it. We are completely powerless to be involved in the power struggle of corporations and the powers that control them. We are just passive observers with no power of influence.
quotes couresy of Game Politics.
"I guess I thought the FTC [US Ratings Board] would have had some more teeth than they apparently have ... I’m not at all happy ... In essence there are no consequences. None ... I would like to have thought that (Take-Two and Rockstar) would have been able to be fined for millions of dollars for the trash they put out across this country ... I am going to be looking to write legislation giving the FTC the authority to impose civil penalties."
As far as I am concerned if we have a free market economy then if manufacturers want to make "trash" and people buy it then that is the person's prerogative. That is why we live in a free society. This is why I apparently have my "freedom". You can't punish someone for making a bad product if people are prepared to pay for it. Why don't they spend more time regulating the industry where it needs to be regulated and punish developers and publishers for releasing products which are unfinished and require a massive amount of patching in order to be playable.
What is the alternative? We have created a capitalist system which is slowly loosing control of its industries. State based control is in essence what is seen as being one of the worst components of a Communist society. However, where is the medium? Look at AS in Australia. Another toothless industry regulator. You apparently can't have your cake and eat it too.
What is Rep. Fred Upton's response? This is a quote from a piece of legislation:
"It shall be unlawful ... to ... distribute ... any video game that contains a rating label… for that video game where the person, with the intent of obtaining a less restrictive age-based content rating, failed to disclose content of the video game that was required to be disclosed to the independent ratings organization ..."
Politicians rely on corporations and industry to provide them with money to run and maintain their political campaigns. A lot of corporations provide money to both sides of politics so they can push their own agendas. This is the way that corporations use their power as leverage over politicians. I will put any money on it that if this piece of legislation makes it to American parliament it will be heavily edited so that the teeth are taken out of it. This serves two purposes. It pleases the people as they believe that legislation has been introduced to regulate industry without them realising that industry have been involved in changing the legislation. And it pleases industry because they have used their power to leverage the result they wanted to maintain their status quo.
What do we do as consumers? If we don't like the product we don't buy it. We are completely powerless to be involved in the power struggle of corporations and the powers that control them. We are just passive observers with no power of influence.
quotes couresy of Game Politics.
posted by thecynicalgamer @ 9:35 am
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