Episode 12: Video Game Lawsuits with the Gaming Historian

Let's Go To Court!

True Crime, History, Comedy

4.8 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2018

⏱️ 118 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we discuss video game lawsuits with our special guest, Norman Caruso, the Gaming Historian. How did we get the Gaming Historian on this little dog and pony show? It’s hard to say. It could be that he’s a huge fan of obscure podcasts. … or it could be that he’s Kristin’s husband. What can we say? It’s a gigantic mystery.

In this episode, Kristin starts us off with Devin Moore, a teenager who shot two police officers and a 911 dispatcher. When the police finally caught up with him, he said, “Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime.” That mindset left a lot of people asking whether violent video games were to blame for his murder spree.

Then Norman brings us our only non-violent crime of the day when he tells the fascinating story of Atari Games vs Nintendo. This lawsuit focused on the very first unlicensed games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Brandi wraps things up with Daniel Petric, the 16-year-old boy who shot his parents after they took away his copy of Halo 3. His defense attorney said that Daniel’s recent infection made him more susceptible to the game’s violent themes…. But we’re a little skeptical.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“The Rise and Fall of Video Gamings Most Vocal Enemy,” Kotaku
“Court Rejects Appeal in Alabama Suit Blaming Game for Slayings,” WSFA
“Grand Theft Auto Player Gets Death Penalty,” The Inquirer
“Can a Video Game Lead to Murder?” CBS News
“Driven to Kill?” People Magazine

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Game Over For Teen Who Killed Mother Over Video Game” by Edecio Martinez, CBS News
“17-year-old Accused of Killing Mother Over Halo 3 Video Game May Get Verdict Soon” by Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer
“Petric Sentenced to 23 Years To Life: Father Says Son Regrets Shooting Mother Over Halo 3 Video Game” by Jordan Cravens, The Morning Journal

In this episode, Norman pulled from:
“Game Over” by David Sheff
A History of AT Games (http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/at_games.html)
Atari Games Corp v Nintendo http://digital-law-online.info/cases/24PQ2D1015.htm

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, so the good news about this episode is that we had special guest
0:05.3	the gaming historian on. The not so great news is that it sounds like we
0:11.5	recorded this episode in a large cave. We did our best to clean it up. I think
0:17.6	it's a really good episode so I hope you'll stick with us. If it's too much for
0:21.6	you, please check out some of our other episodes. One semester of law school, one
0:27.2	semester of criminal justice, two experts. I'm Kristen Pitts, I'm Brandy Egan,
0:33.1	let's go to court. On this episode I'll talk about Devon Moore, a man who shot and
0:38.2	killed three people. Did Grand Theft Auto make him do it? And I'll be talking about
0:43.2	Daniel Petrick, the 16 year old boy who shot his parents over a video game. This
0:48.6	week we have special guest Norman Caruso, the gaming historian. Welcome Norm. Hello
0:54.4	and I will be talking about the Atari games versus Nintendo lawsuit, which
0:58.9	focused on the very first unlicensed games for the Nintendo entertainment system.
1:03.9	So I just want to start by thinking our special guest, Norman Caruso, he begged to be
1:12.1	on the podcast. I mean, since we've started this, he's been like, when are you
1:17.2	going to let me be on? I want to be on so bad. I don't just want to, you know,
1:21.6	it's not enough for me to set up your audio equipment each week. I just want to be
1:25.6	featured as a guest. Please are people aware that I'm your husband, Kristen?
1:31.6	Okay. Well, now they're going to, here's the problem. Now they're going to be like,
1:35.8	he slept his way to the top. I slept my way onto this show,
1:43.8	which is the only way to get on this show. Guess so. Can't wait for future guests.
1:52.6	Stay tuned for Channing Tatum.
1:58.1	Recently divorced Channing Tatum.
	...

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