Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Jack Thompson: I’m being imaginarily assassinated

Anti-videogame Miami attorney and longtime Overlawyered favorite Jack Thompson claims that players in the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto IV are given instructions to kill a certain lawyer in his office and that the lawyer utters the line “Guns don’t kill people. Video games do,” which means it must be a parody of Thompson himself. He’s fired off a demand that the release be halted. (GamePolitics.com, Sept. 18; Geoffrey Rapp, PrawfsBlawg, Sept. 20). For Thompson’s legal threats last year against the publisher of Mortal Kombat because users can employ the game’s build-a-fighter mode to create characters that might resemble him, see Oct. 30, 2006. Plus: Thompson responds in comments.

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9 Comments

  • I didn’t use the word “imaginarily,” you did, and yet you attribute it to me. Your “news” reportage goes downhill from there. This company has incited harassment of me at my home previously, which is documented, and you didn’t manage to report that. How typical.

  • Shhh … don’t anyone respond. He may try to sue you.

    • By Gino

  • Hey, Jack, you do realize that a) no one cares about your crazy rambling and b) you’re an Internet laughingstock, right?

    You’d think getting disbarment proceedings started against you in Florida would serve as a wake-up call.

  • James Trainor, Ditto from me!

    I love following this guy’s antics with the video game industry, and Rockstar/TakeTwo especially.

    I’m guessing that next he is going to stop the sale and use of all Nintendo Wii game consoles, as you can make “Mii”‘s that look like just about anyone, including Mr Thompson.

    What’s next, suing all comedians that make disparaging jokes about lawyers?

    • By EEJ

  • Hey Jack –

    Given the lack of quotation marks around the headline “Jack Thompson: I’m being Imaginarily Assassinated,” how can you make the claim that they attribute the use of the word “imaginarily” to you? Sometimes, a headline is just a headline…

    • By rbb

  • I didn’t use the word “imaginarily,” you did

    So you think you are really being assassinated?

  • Jack, one question: can just anybody be a lawyer in Florida?

    • By Xrlq

  • Boo hoo, Jack. Since you are so hellbent on linking violence and murder to video games, why not come up with some actual case studies instead of anticipating a huge payout every time you open your trap.

  • Welcome to the blogging world, Mr. Thompson. Let me introduce you…

    Here (especially here, at overlawyered) witty people with senses of humor post about laughable people like you. Often, when they do it, they use funny headings. One typical method is to paraphrase what the person’s saying to highlight its absurdity.

    Get it?
    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

    Xrig, the answer is, sadly, yes. For goodness sakes, Charlie Crist, evil rabble-rousing attorney #1, is our governor!