Marc Pembroke (maplawqb@clic.net)
Fri, 1 Oct 1999 19:25:05 -0400
From: "Marc Pembroke" <maplawqb@clic.net> Subject: Re: "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill" Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 19:25:05 -0400
List address to send message to everyone: ifets-discuss@LISTSERV.READADP.COM
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not certain of the context of the passage Glenn Ralston quoted:
> It seems especially disturbing to me that
> some academic theorists may unthinkingly
> exaggerate our
> reasonably cautious civil liberties posture
> by asserting intellectual inhibitions along
> the lines that
> "by the rules of empirical research we cannot
> determine that savage videogames (electronic
> training?) cause violence, so, then there can
> be no assigned or assumed responsibility."
>
> Glenn Ralston
> Environmedia
However, such statements are quite common when attempting to assign or
assess responsibility of one person's acts for those of another. More
particularly, I think the question is whether one can hold a video game
manufacturer or seller liable for violence which a user of the game
perpetrates.
I share a concern that our research and statistical methods fail to assess
certain dimensions of this problem. However, I also understand why a system
of law and civil liberties must be rigorous in assigning blame for damages
caused to third parties with whom they have no direct contact. When does
responsibility for behavior go beyond the individual actor?
When we speak of a person's actions or negligence "causing" damage, at
least in the legal system, we mean that the act, or negligence was the
proximate cause of the damage. A classic story is that a 19th-Century widow,
Mrs. O'Leary set a lantern down in her barn. A cow supposedly kicked the
lantern over, starting a fire, which spread beyond the barn, and eventually
destroyed a large number of buildings in Chicago, called the Great Chicago
Fire. Supposing that we could prove that story, would it have been correct
to sue Mrs. O'Leary for all the buildings lost that evening? Should she have
been jailed for massive destruction of property? Normally the law holds
that the damage would have to be "reasonably foreseeable." We don't normally
find people guilty for mere inadvertent errors.
Now, when it comes to the sale of a product where violent images are
produced or violence is suggested, how easy should it be to blame the
product, not the perpetrator? If 100 million people watch a violent show,
and 1 imitates the violence in the show on the street, can we say that the
show caused the person to behave that way? How do we know that the person
wasn't violent anyway? Why did the 99,999,999 not commit the same acts if
the show "causes" violence?
Once we permit blame to be transferred easily from one person to another,
the law becomes arbitrary. Anyone can blame a toy, a car, a novel, or a song
for any crime, and file a lawsuit. What will happen? Any corporation or
individual perceived to be rich will be sued anytime someone can come up
with a vague link between a crime and a product or a song or even a
conversation. Would that be fair?
Marc A. Pembroke
Directeur, Institut Auguste Lecerf
University of Phoenix practitioner faculty
6401, rue des Camomilles Apt 2
Charny, QC G6X3E8
Canada
(418) 832-7168
maplawqb@clic.net
http://www.clic.net/~maplawqb
----- Original Message -----
From: Glenn Ralston <gralston@in.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list IFETS-DISCUSS
<IFETS-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.READADP.COM>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 1999 12:42 PM
Subject: "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill"
> List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discuss@LISTSERV.READADP.COM
> Details of current discussion:
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>
> I'm sharing with my fellows on this list my
> keen interest in the announcement of the just
> published
> book "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill" (ISBN:
> 0609606131)
>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609606131/o/qid=938727095/sr=2-2/00
2-2481347-8229866>
>
> <gralston@in.net>
> <http://home.earthlink.net/~gralston/index.html>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Forum website: http://ifets.gmd.de/
> Forum's contact person: kinshuk@ieee.org
> Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.gmd.de/maillist.html
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
---------------------------------------------------------
Forum website: http://ifets.gmd.de/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@ieee.org
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.gmd.de/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Tue 05 Oct 1999 - 08:14:56 MEST