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Michigan's Videogame Law Faces Fight
by Chloe Albanesius
The videogame industry on Wednesday announced plans to sue the state of Michigan over a law to make it illegal to rent or sell violent or sexually explicit videogames to minors.
The statute violates First Amendment rights, and "by virtue of its vagueness, it will also create a huge amount of confusion for Michigan's retailers, parents and video games developers," Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), said in a statement.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the bill into law Wednesday. Under the act, people who knowingly distribute violent or sexually explicit videogames to minors could be fined up to $5,000 for first offenses, $15,000 for the second and $40,000 for the third strike.
The law does not cover parents, family members or friends showing or viewing such games at home. Should someone pretend to be a minor's parent or guardian or try to pose a minor as an adult, they will face up to 93 days in jail and a $15,000 fine. Businesses that show or sell games to children face jail time and a $25,000 fine.
ESA said that store owners will not be able to determine whether they are obeying the law and that it will make retailers surrogate parents. "It's illogical that videogames would be treated more harshly than R-rated movies or music CDs with parental warning labels, both of which can be legally viewed and sold to minors," Lowenstein said. "How can you treat a videogame based on James Bond any different than a book or movie based on the same subject matter?"
In justifying the production of adult-themed games, Lowenstein noted that "in 2004, the average game buyer was 37 years old and the average game player was 30."
Granholm, a Democrat, is not convinced. "The graphic nature and wide availability of these games should disturb all of us, whether or not we are parents," she said at the bill-signing. The governor proposed the law during her February State of the State speech, calling violent and sexual videogames a "coarse daily assault on [children's] senses from popular media."
Similar laws were struck down in Washington state last year, in St. Louis County, Mo., in 2003, and in Indianapolis in 2001. A recently enacted Illinois law is being challenged in the court.
Kentucky, SAFECOM To Test Interoperability
U.S. Homeland Security Department officials were in Kentucky on Friday for one of two test projects on improving the ability of communications systems to work across jurisdictions.
The department's SAFECOM Project, which is supposed to ensure that all public-safety officials can communicate, must conduct two regional interoperability tests as part of a 2004 law that revamped the nation's intelligence community. Its second test will be conducted in Nevada.
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher was in Frankfort for the start of the first project. It aims to ensure that the nation does not lose emergency responders like it did Sept. 11, 2001, because of miscommunication, "whether it is due to a natural or man-made disaster."
SAFECOM officials will work with local authorities to develop a project plan, conduct focus groups and strategic planning, and create guidelines for the first 90 days of implementation. "This pilot will be driven by the practitioner community -- the men and women who use communications equipment on a daily basis," said David Boyd, director of Homeland Security's interoperability and compatibility office.
The nation's communication system has been the target of more criticism since apparent failures after Hurricane Katrina.
Jumping On The Broadband Bandwagon
Salt Lake City, the capital of a state that boasts two successful, city-owned communications networks, will host a two-day conference next week on high-speed Internet services owned by municipalities. The gathering will touch on broadband "best practices" and the efficacy of deploying municipally owned networks.
Speakers will include: Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah; Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman; Stanford University professor Lawrence Lessig; and executives from companies like Cisco Systems, Intel and Riverstone Networks. They will talk about deploying city-owned networks and about using the networks for telemedicine, telework and distance learning.
The conference comes after the cities of Franklin, Tenn., and St. Cloud, Fla., announced that they will use Hewlett-Packard technologies to deploy their municipal networks.
Franklin's network will give fire and police officials in the city access to a wireless broadband network. HP offered a "flexible approach and cost-effective solution," said Fred Banner, Franklin's director of municipal information technology.
In St. Cloud, officials are working to expand an existing wireless hotspot. It will "enrich our education system, grow local commerce, and better equip our local law enforcement and emergency response teams," St. Cloud Mayor Glenn Sangiovanni said.
Meanwhile, Portland International Jetport in Maine on Tuesday unveiled its new wireless network, which will allow travelers with laptops to connect to the system. Business travelers comprise about 40 percent of the airport's clientele, said Jeff Monroe, Portland's director of transportation. The system also will be accessible to airport businesses.
In other news, The New Mexican reports that Azulstar Communications, which installed the first wireless network in Grand Haven, Mich., is finishing a citywide network in Rio Rancho, N.M. The company is hoping to expand to Santa Fe, but Stan Valdez, Santa Fe's information technology director, does not think that will happen this year.
Santa Fe will ask the legislature for $800,000 to upgrade its computer system so it can handle a wireless network, Valdez said.
Finally, Los Angeles was not the only city to experience an interruption of a utility service this week. Duluth, Minn., on Tuesday experienced a daylong blackout of telecommunications service. The Duluth News Tribune reports that a software problem halted Eventis Telecom's service, affecting traditional telephones, cellular phones and Internet service.
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