Maryland Game Law Finds Industry Support

IGN: Maryland Game Law Finds Industry Support

"The world of recent game legislation is populated by the fast and the dead. Bills to limit or ban sale of violent games have burst up, fungus-style, across the country, where each is met with ovation and outcry, and nearly each is eventually struck down in court.

The pattern may not continue, however. A Maryland bill addressing mature games content was signed into law by Governor Robert Ehrlich on May 2 -- and unlike similar legislation elsewhere, the bill is receiving game industry support.

According to GameDaily BIZ, the Entertainment Software Association is supporting Maryland's HB707 because the law does not impose a new rating system, nor does it levy fines for selling violent games to minors. Rather, the bill effectively includes sexually mature or explicit games in the wider group of media deemed illegal to show to minors. The law does not single out game violence for such inclusion, however, which the ESA would see as a double standard for games (violent books and movies are not considered "obscene")."