Gamertell

Jack Thompson has filed a Plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend complaint with the U.S. District Court in Florida. In the latest complaint, Thompson accuses Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics and its parent company, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), for assisting video game industry “...retailers and others who seek the continued distribution of Mature-rated video games to minors…” as well infringing on Thompson’s freedom of speech by not allowing him to defend himself on Game Politics reports of his failed crusades, personal sting operations and Bar complaint hearings.

The list of people Thompson plans to sue is growing. Other than ECA and McCauley, he plans to sue Judge Dava Tunis who is scheduled to act as referee for Thompson’s upcoming Bar trial scheduled to begin on November 26, 2007. In his complaint, Thompson quotes from a a few published articles on GamePolitic’s site that include a death threat against Thompson by a reader.

McCauley submitted a second story to explain what had taken place since the Thompson’s initial complaint about a line he found offensive in the Lorne Lanning debate story, where he offered to remove the offending material and in his attempt to delete the offending lines in question Thompson responded with a lawsuit.

“For reasons known only to himself, Thompson has often tried to paint me as a game industry stooge,” McCauley wrote in his latest article explaining what may have sparked Thompson’s move to add him to his list of complaints. “I think the various game industry entities I’ve zinged over the years would have a chuckle at that notion. ...

More immediately, what seems to have sparked the attempt to add GP/ECA to the suit was an e-mail exchange yesterday morning. In the daily roundup GP blogged about a GameIndustry.Biz interview with Lorne Lanning, Thompson’s debate opponent at the recent VGXPO. Thompson took offense to one of Lanning’s comments and let us know about it. Based on Thompson’s own words and writings, I didn’t think Lanning’s remark was especially off-base, but agreed to delete the disputed sentence from the GP story by way of keeping the peace.

Within a few hours Thompson had included the Lanning quote as part of the basis for dragging me into his lawsuit. So much for making a conciliatory gesture…So apparently I am being sued for something inappropriate that someone else wrote. Something that I deleted when I discovered it. Something that, by banning its author, I took steps to prevent from happening again. Yeah, I guess that’s justice …”

After the first two pages of complaints, Thompson’s submission becomes an eye sore and soon becomes the frothing rants of a madman before he actually states what he wants:

“Thompson seeks in excess of one million dollars in compensatory damages from McCauley and ECA, and in excess of three million dollars in punitive damages. I hereby certify that the foregoing has been provided to opposing counsel through the court’s electronic filing system, this November 15, 2007.”

Read [GamePolitics] Download [Filed Motion (.doc)]