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.