{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/63b458521043e00011114396/65fd9a0d3402060016d06a99?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Jack Thompson, Former lawyer, \"anti-video-game activist.\"","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/63b458521043e00011114396/1711118198877-d20139ff76594bf958566b83f888896e.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>My guest today is former lawyer who gained recognition in the late nineties and early 2000s as an \"anti-video game activist\", criticizing the content of violent video games and their alleged effects on children. Via a series of high-profile lawsuits, including several against<strong> Rockstar</strong>, the creator of the <strong>Grand Theft Auto</strong> series, he claimed that Mature-rated games are marketed and sold to children, and that their content has played a contributing role in deadly school shootings and other tragic events in the U.S. </p><p><br></p><p>In a 2015 a <strong>BBC</strong> dramatization of the conflict between my guest and Rockstar, he was played by <strong>Bill Paxton</strong>. By then, however, he was no longer a practicing attorney. In 2008 the <strong>Supreme Court of Florida </strong>permanently disbarred him from practicing law. </p><p><br></p><p>Now seventy-two years old and keen golfer, my guest retains the beliefs that animated his zealous pursuit of video game companies. Last year he told me, via email: “I was right and I would do it all over again.”</p>","author_name":"Simon Parkin"}