A U.S. District Court judge found that the Chicago Transit Authority was operating under an overbroad ordinance in rejecting ads for violent video games. -DB
Video game companies can advertise mature- and adult-rated video games on CTA buses and trains — at least for now.
U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer issued a preliminary injunction Thursday stating that the CTA, which had banned the advertising of such games, must accept the ads.
“The CTA has been operating a public forum for expression for more than 20 years,” Pallmeyer wrote, “and it has previously displayed advertisements in the very category it now seeks to prohibit without any known grievous injury to the riding public beyond possible annoyance.”
She said while the CTA has a “legitimate state interest” in watching out for the welfare of younger riders, “the ordinance it relies on to achieve that interest is overbroad, ineffectual and not narrowly tailored.”
The issue erupted in 2008 after the CTA accepted and posted ads for “Grand Theft Auto IV,” a wildly popular but exceedingly violent game.
In it, players navigate the game’s main character, Niko Bellic, a former human trafficker from Eastern Europe, through the criminal underworld as he takes out innocent bystanders, carjacks people, goes to strip clubs, earns money off criminal enterprises and drives drunk.
But in April 2008, the CTA removed the ads — which themselves contained no violent or mature content — after a local TV station questioned the wisdom of displaying the ads on public property in the wake of a rash of shootings here.
Take Two Interactive, parent company of Rockstar Games, which developed Grant Theft Auto, then sued the CTA, claiming the CTA had violated the company’s contract and its free-speech rights. The suit ended in a settlement in which the CTA agreed to post the ads again.
Last January, the CTA, citing a “demonstrable correlation” between violent video games and violent or aggressive behavior, banned any ads promoting games rated “M” (mature) or “AO” (adult only). Grand Theft Auto IV has an M rating.
The new, broad ban prompted the Entertainment Software Association — an industry group representing game makers — to sue. Ken Doroshow, an attorney for the association, argued the policy discriminated against his clients and questioned why R-rated movies can be advertised on the CTA.
“It’s absurd,” Doroshow said. Game makers said the CTA, which is scheduled to meet with the association Jan. 19, should scrap the policy instead of allowing the suit to go to trial.
The CTA issued a statement Friday saying it disagrees with the judge’s decision and is “currently reviewing the court’s analysis and its options for moving forward.”
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