The Entertainment Software Association, the video game special interest group that represents the industry, is touting a judge’s decision to force the state of Michigan to pay attorney’s fees for a lawsuit they filed against the state. According to a press release they sent out, Judge George Caram Steeh, US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, ordered the taxpayers of Michigan to pay $182,349 to the video game industry. The same judge ruled in April that a video game regulation law in Michigan unconstitutional based on First Amendment protections.
“States that pass laws regulating video game sales might as well just tell voters they have a new way to throw away their tax dollars on wasteful and pointless political exercises that do nothing to improve the quality of life in the state,” Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said. “Our hope is that we can stop this pick pocketing of taxpayers and start working cooperatively, as we have with several states and elected officials, to implement truly effective programs to educate parents to use the tools industry has made available — from ESRB ratings to parental control technologies.”
