11-03-2003, 06:30 PM
If you play video games at all, read this article I found in the toronto star today.
[/QUOTE]Video game creator sued over killingsCHICAGOâA fatal sniping spree by two teenage Tennessee stepbrothers, who said they were mimicking the video game Grand Theft Auto III, has triggered a $246 million (U.S.) damage suit against the game's creator and others. A Canadian, whose family is from Windsor, Ont., was killed and a Virginia woman was seriously wounded by the boys' rifle fire last June. The suit, filed Monday at Newport, Tenn., names Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., Wal-Mart Inc., which sold the game, the parents of the boys and the boys themselves. Registered nurse Aaron Hamel, 45, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, of Moneta, Va., was wounded in the pelvis when .22-calibre bullets hit their vehicles June 25, as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains. The suit alleges that the parties being challenged should have known the game would lead to "copycat violence." In court in August, Joshua and William Buckner, 14 and 16, respectively, admitted firing a rifle from a wooded hilltop overlooking the highway Hamel and Bede were using. They were ordered held until age 19 after pleading guilty to reckless homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Hamel's cousin, Denise Deneau of Windsor, was in his truck and injured when it ran off the road. The suit was filed on behalf of Hamel's parents John and Rosemary Hamel, also of Windsor, Deneau and a passenger in the Brede vehicle. REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS[QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]Video game creator sued over killingsCHICAGOâA fatal sniping spree by two teenage Tennessee stepbrothers, who said they were mimicking the video game Grand Theft Auto III, has triggered a $246 million (U.S.) damage suit against the game's creator and others. A Canadian, whose family is from Windsor, Ont., was killed and a Virginia woman was seriously wounded by the boys' rifle fire last June. The suit, filed Monday at Newport, Tenn., names Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., Wal-Mart Inc., which sold the game, the parents of the boys and the boys themselves. Registered nurse Aaron Hamel, 45, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, of Moneta, Va., was wounded in the pelvis when .22-calibre bullets hit their vehicles June 25, as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains. The suit alleges that the parties being challenged should have known the game would lead to "copycat violence." In court in August, Joshua and William Buckner, 14 and 16, respectively, admitted firing a rifle from a wooded hilltop overlooking the highway Hamel and Bede were using. They were ordered held until age 19 after pleading guilty to reckless homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Hamel's cousin, Denise Deneau of Windsor, was in his truck and injured when it ran off the road. The suit was filed on behalf of Hamel's parents John and Rosemary Hamel, also of Windsor, Deneau and a passenger in the Brede vehicle. REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS[QUOTE]