Thursday, December 22, 2005

Judge Whyte has been busy

Sorry, no word on the Rambus matters, but His Honor has been busy dispensing justice:

Judge Whyte issued (12/21/05) a preliminary injuction to halt a California law (Act) that restricts the sale and rental of video games to minors and has strict labeling requirements for video games. The law would have been effective January 1, 2006.

In describing the Act signed by Republican Governor Schwarzenegger in October, Judge Whyte wrote that it "seems primarily designed to restrict minors' access to a particularly violent class of video games."

Isn't that a noble goal? Perhaps, but Judge Whyte reminds Schwarzenegger and friends that content based regulations are presumptively invalid under the First Amendment.

Further, citing established case law Judge Whyte notes that the proponents of the Act "must demonstrate that the harms are real, not merely conjectural, and that the regulation will in fact alleviate these harms in a direct and material way."

For the Ramboids keeping score, Rambus v. The World is about money and that takes a back seat to irreparable harm of First Amendment rights - sorry, but it is was it is.

For those in need of reading the writings of Judge Whyte, here is a link to the Preliminary Injunction found at His Honor's site.

Read more at 1up.com linked here.

Read more at mercurynews.com linked here.

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