Jack Thompson is my best friend in the whole wide world. I know some of you don't like the guy and are sick of hearing of him, so by all means go read one of our many other stories, but for those of you who love our notorious Destructoid community member, you may be shocked to learn that he encouraged me to molest a child in our last correspondence.
Excited over the score for freedom that was Manhunt 2's unbanning in the UK, I shared my joy with Mr. Thompson. As a believer in American justice, I thought he might share my satisfaction that freedom of choice had been granted in my home country. He didn't seem too fond of the idea, though.
After first trying to claim that the game had never been banned, he answered my correction by suggesting that I molest children and accused me of doing so indirectly through Rockstar. Apparently, supporting the rights of a company to release entertainment that meets legal rating criteria means you want to interfere with minors inappropriately.
I don't know, telling me to molest children, heavily implying that I am indeed somebody who enjoys such activity ... do you think I have grounds for a libel suit here? Those are some pretty serious allegations, so I ask the Destructoid community for legal advice concerning Thompson's words. After the jump, you can read the full transcription and decide for yourselves. I reckon we have a case though.
Jim Sterling: The BBFC has been overruled by the Video Appeals Committee and Manhunt 2 will go on sale in the UK:
Link
Isn't that awesome, Jack? Censorship is never good, and now we've seen a huge victory for freedom of market decision. I'm so happy!
Jack Thompson: Keeping adult products from children is not censorship. Also, censorship is a ban on material, prohibiting its sale to anyone. Don't you own a dictionary? What are you , a moron?
Sterling: Um, you DO realize the game's sale was prevented from everyone in the UK by the BBFC, right? It WAS banned, not just from children. So yes, it was censorship. Now it's unbanned, rated 18, like it should be.
HOORAAAAAY!
Thompson: Why don't you just molest children directly rather than through Rockstar. It would be more personal that way
Sterling: Did you just accuse me of child molestation, Mr. Thompson? As a man who pursues many cases of libel against him, you really should learn to not be a hypocrite.
Go read the story. I don't even want to play this game. But I want the choice to not play it to be mine. Have you no respect for freedom of choice, sir?
Jack Thompson hasn't answered, but I think there is ground for a lawsuit here. Such accusations could be taken very seriously and in any case, encouraging someone to molest kids really is quite questionable for a man who claims to protect them. I wonder if not reporting it could be considered conspiring to molest. Maybe I should warn the cops that there's an online advocate of this kind of thing.
Just kidding, Jack. I know you'd never seriously encourage this ... would you? I'd hate to have to sue you.
Contest:
11:09 PM on 03.17.2008
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Anywhere, anytime, any hole. You name it, and you can have it.
It was a private email.
Now, if he published it, and used it as a declaration of your paedophelia, then you can sue his ass.
Yep, this is correct. Free speech laws only cover so much, but this does not fall outside those boundaries. If one politician gets on TV and says "Politician #2, why don’t you go fuck some kiddies", he would get in trouble for the comment, but it’s within his right to say it. Now if he said "Politician #2 is a kiddy fiddler" that falls outside free speech laws and he could be taken to court for spreading false statements which could damage the reputation of politician #1. So in this case if Jack posted on his website “Jim Sterling displays his lust for kiddies by supporting GTA and he is an evil man” then you could sue his ass.
Of course then even at best it would go to court and the judge has to agree that the statement was a direct attempt to spread false information about that persons character rather than just slander, which can be very tricky depending on the wording used.
Oh, he's definitely coming soon to a US near you.
it is one thing for us... we embrace the silliness... but for somebody actually trying to seem professional?
lolz
It just has to be enough that whatever the correlating statement was is enough to damage your reputation. In Jims case (if Jack had gone about this the wrong way), if he could prove his writing career has been ruined because of those statements, that is enough. If you are a truck driver and now nobody will hire you because a competing company ran TV ads saying you hate black people, that’s enough (although you would somehow have to prove in a court of law you do not, through things like previous relationships and such...like I said, it gets tricky). It’s usually only aimed at public profile figures though, because usually if someone makes a character slandering claim, nobody gives a shit.
Anyway, I know you're not going to sue the bastard, but I'd like to see it happen anyway. Take him for all he's worth, what little he is anyway. Hey, at the very least you could sue him and then just give you winnings away to the charity he was supposed to give money to before he backed out like the lying bitch that he is.
Any who check out my awesome moves to get an over time cap in a TFL match http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=839pW029EUU
So awesome.
Nice investigatory journalism Jim.
He's a terrorist, what do you think? Yeah I said it, damn proud of it too.
As for those comments, maybe if ya show em to the florida bar they might speed up his license-ectomy to tomorrow. (Honestly though I doubt it, but it couldn't hurt.)
Jack Thompson is SO at home on the internet.
Keep it classy, Jack.
He's a terrorist, what do you think? Yeah I said it, damn proud of it too.
As for those comments, maybe if ya show em to the florida bar they might speed up his license-ectomy to tomorrow. (Honestly though I doubt it, but it couldn't hurt.)
I love how he gets mad like a child when he doesn't get his way. What cool dude.
or this a phone conversation?
Jim is this real?