The pressure is on Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman from video gamers, who are urging the Guv to veto a bill aimed at retailers who get caught selling violent games to minors.

A group called the Video Game Voters Network has launched an e-mail campaign, asking people to send letters to Huntsman in opposition to HB353 - saying the bill "will unfairly expose Utah video game stores to frivolous lawsuits."

The bill, if signed by Huntsman, would raise the possible fines to retailers who establish policies to prevent selling M-rated games to underage customers and then sell such games to minors - under the state's "false advertising" statutes.

HB353 is widely hated in the gaming community. Here are some examples:

• Macworld.com writer Peter Cohen opines that such laws are usually tossed out in court - and hopes "that some day legislators finally get the message and start working with the industry instead of pointlessly railing against it."
• Ben Kuchera, writing on the Ars Technica site, says the legislation won't stop retailers (it may, in fact, work against efforts to educate parents about the rating system for video games), and may end up costing state governments in court costs.
• On the site PS3 Informer, writer Kris Erickson calls out the bill's author - anti-gamer crusader and disbarred Florida lawyer Jack Thompson - by saying the HB353 will destroy the video-game ratings system, and "help push a conservative agenda of stirring up moral panic and building support for an eventual ban of mature games entirely, something that Thompson has publicly stated he would like to see happen."

Labels: Jon Huntsman, videogames