Lawyers

Lawyers have been around for a long time. Also people from the 1800’s might think the same thing about lawyers as someone from this century and that is that they’re crooks
Personally I haven’t had any experiences with lawyers but since I’m still young I probably will need one in the future. Lately though I have not heard anything good about them. Some things I’ve heard are that they’re too pricey; they will try to outsmart you, basically that they’ll do anything to get your money. But being around for a long time also says something and that is that we need them. If we didn’t need them than being a lawyer would’ve been a dead profession years ago.
In reality you don’t really need a lawyer. But ask yourself this; are you willing to study pages and pages of the law to get out of a speeding ticket? Do you really have the time to do all of that? I don’t. But then again is it really worth it paying so much for something that could’ve been easily avoided and isn’t as much as the lawyer. Maybe it’d be cheaper to pay the lawyer than study some books that you might have to buy that will add up to a whole lot more than a lawyer.
Then again I have no personal experience with lawyers and all I know about lawyers I know from movies and the media, both not very good sources. So here is some advice from someone with no experience with lawyers, next time you wonder if you should step on the gas on a yellow light, don’t do it there might be a cop nearby waiting for someone to make a mistake.

Grand Theft Auto Lawsuit

Grand Theft Auto has been criticized for many things such as violence, language, drug content and other explicit things. In June of 2003 another thing was added to this list and that is training players how to kill cops.
A teen from Alabama was convicted of killing two police officers and a dispatcher after stealing a car. If you aren’t familiar with the game this is what you basically do in the game. You get a car from anywhere and drive from point A to point B and kill people. In court in December he is quoted telling one of the officers “Life is a video game. You’ve got to die sometime.”[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147722,00.html]
Now four companies are being sued relating to the lawsuit; Wal-mart, GameStop, Sony, and Take-Two Interactive. Wal-mart and GameStop are being sued for selling the game to the teen while under 17, the age you are allowed to buy games that are rated “M”. Sony is being sued, in my opinion for being guilty by association, because it is the console where the game can be played. Take-Two Interactive is being sued for publishing the game.
Being in Game Art this doesn’t help my profession. Also being a fan of the game I have biased opinion on this subject. Also being three years younger than the accused I don’t believe that Take-Two Interactive should be held responsible for this. The reason being is that if I played the same games as he did and being younger I should be more “influenced” to go around and commit crimes, yet I have not. Sony should also not be sued because, like I stated before, it is guilty by association. Just because you can play it on their console it does not mean they are responsible for the actions the people who play on them do.
On the other hand Wal-mart and GameStop should be responsible for selling games that are rated “M” to minors. Although I do not always agree with the ratings that some games get, they are there for a reason.

Myspace Lawsuit

Many teenagers today have access to the internet; so it shouldn’t be a surprise that almost all of them have an account on a social networking site such as MySpace.

MySpace is a site where people can go and meet other people, chat, post pictures, and even post blogs. MySpace also has a bad reputation with parents from people who kidnap children, and people who post in blogs about other people. One example is the case of a thirteen year old girl who committed suicide after a failed romance with a boy he met online. After some time police found that the sixteen year old boy from MySpace was actually made-up.

It all started when thirteen year old Megan Meier met Josh Evans, the made-up boy, and started getting friendly. Megan was who had A.D.D, depression, and was overweight as a child needed a boost in self-esteem and she found it with Josh Evans. After a while Josh decided not to be friends with Megan anymore because of some rumors. This later escalated to name calling in blogs.

The person who created Josh Evans has not been charged with anything.” Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law” said Mike Celizic a reporter for msnbc (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21882976/page/2/) It seems to me that the people who created Josh Evans should be charged for writing harmful messages to Megan. The correct term for this would be libel which is “the spreading of damaging statements in written form,” (Essentials of Business Law Liuzzo pg.45).Libel is part of defamation “the harming of a person’s reputation and good name by the communication of a false statement.”(Essentials of Business Law Liuzzo pg.45) Lori Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor charges and could be sent to jail with a fine of $100,000 for each misdemeanor .

Parents should keep an eye on what their kids do on the internet. Whether they’re playing an innocent game online with someone else or if they’re chatting they might be in danger.