utah-game-bill posts

You may remember us mentioning that the recent veto of Utah's recently proposed video/PC game bill by the state's governor Jon Huntsman Jr. may not be the end of the matter. The state's legislature could overturn that veto if they got a two-thirds majority to vote in favor of it. Now it's looking less likely that will happen, although it's not because the supporters of the bill can't find the votes.

According to the Deseret News, the reason may be money. As with everyone else, Utah's state government is dealing with budget issues and creating a special legislative session to overturn Governor Huntsman's veto could cost the state $25,000. The article indicates a reluctance to do so in order to save money. The deadline to call such a special session is May 11.

[Via Game Politics]

In a surprising development, Game Politics reports that Utah governor Jon Huntsman has vetoed the bill HB 353. That bill, if he had signed it, would have allowed people to file a lawsuit against retailers who pledge not to sell certain rated games to minors but then are discovered to have done so anyway.

The bill, which was passed overwhelming in Utah's state legislature, was vetoed by Huntsman because, in his words, " . . . language of this bill is so broad that it likely will be struck down by the courts as an unconstitutional violation of the Dormant Commerce Clause and/or the First Amendment." Game Politics is reporting that retailers lobbied strongly against the bill to the governor's office. The bill isn't dead yet, however. The state legislatures could vote to overturn Huntsman's veto.

As expected, the Utah state Senate has overwhelmingly passed a proposed bill that if signed into law could affect how PC games are sold in that state. The bill will allow people to file a lawsuit against retailers who pledge not to sell certain rated games to minors but then are discovered to have done so anyway.

The bill, HB 353, had previously passed the Utah House and on Thursday the bill passed the state Senate by a vote of 25-4. The Senate did put in some amendments to the bill that needed to be approved by the state House by midnight on Thursday but according to Game Politics that approval did happen. The bill will now be sent to the state's governor Jon Huntsman for his signature or veto. If approved the law will go into effect after Jan. 1 2010. It's likely that the games industry will sue to stop enforcement of the bill if signed into law. The head of the ESRB game ratings board Patricia Vance has already expressed her views against the bill.

Most of the PC and video game sales laws that have attempted to be passed by local and state governments have concentrated on the games themselves. These laws tried to make sales of games with violent and/or sexual content illegal to minors. All of those laws have been shot down in the court system so far under First Amendment free speech

Now a new bill in the Utah State Legislature is taking a different approach, The bill, HB 353, is targeted at retailers who have enforcement policies on the sales of games. The bill will allow people to file a lawsuit against retailers who pledge not to sell certain rated games to minors but then are discovered to have done so anyway.

The Salt Lake Tribune web site reports that there are a number of exceptions for retailers in the final bill, such as exempting stores from being sued that have employee-training programs. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Michael Morley, was originally written with assistance by none other than game industry critic and disbarred attorney Jack Thompson, according to Game Politics. The bill passed the Utah House Tuesday with a vote of 70-2. It now goes to the Utah Senate for their vote and if passed will finally go to Utah's governor for the final signing into law. It's unclear if the game industry will attempt to fight the bill in court if it does become law.