Somebody’s been a bad boy. Esoteric, industry-specific litigation afficionados will remember the settlement between Take Two Interactive and Jack Thompson a few months back where Jack Thompson agreed not to sit around talking endless trash about Take Two games.
Yeah, that lasted for five minutes. Jackie boy has problems keeping his mouth shut, and Take Two is sick of it.
In a series of e-mail exchanges, Take Two’s vice president Gena Feist attempted to warn Thompson that should he continue publicly denouncing Take Two and Manhunt 2, he would be in violation of their settlement and be subject to further litigation on the part of the company. Jack Thompson’s response? His usual misdirecting and childish spew:
From: Jack Thompson
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 4:55 PM
Subject: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2
Dear Mr. Zelnick and Mr. Feder:
Congratulations on receiving a “Mature” rating for Manhunt 2. You’ll live to regret it (trust me), so enjoy it while you can.
I want to bring to your attention the fact that at www.rockstargames.com anyone of any age can order Manhunt 2 and receive it, with no age verification whatsoever. Asking a 14-year-old if he’s 17 is not age verification, now is it?
You also know that the use of a bank card as an age verifier is a violation of all bank card agreements, right?
Govern yourselves accordingly, if you can.
Regards, Jack Thompson
———————————-
From: Gena Feist
To: Jack Thompson
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:47 PM
Subject: FW: Letter to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2
Mr. Thompson,Your statements regarding our practices are false, as you know or should have known.
The Take Two website verifies age in two ways. First, consumers who purchase M or RP rated games certify that they are at least 17 years of age. Numerous websites use the same method for verifying age in connection with sales of movies and games. Second, we verify age through the use of a credit card number in connection with a transaction. Such transaction based verification is acceptable to both credit card companies and the FTC (see, e.g. http:/www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.shtm).
We demand that you cease making these false statements about our online sales practices. Your dissemination of knowingly false statements for the purpose of adversely affecting Take-Two’s business is actionable and we reserve all of our rights under the settlement agreement and state and federal law.
Not only are your statements clearly false, but they were made in an email publicly disseminated to both the FTC and the press. Please be assured that I am happy to answer any questions you have concerning our practices in a private communications. It is for this very reason that our settlement agreement designates a legal contact for you at Take Two.
If you continue to make false statements to an audience of press and public officials, however, we will have no choice but to take action against you.
Sincerely, Gena
There’s a lot more there, so be sure to check out the Game Politics article.
