iMEGA Engages in Legal Proceedings Against Minnesota Agency
Recently, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming association delivered a huge lawsuit again a Minnesota agency. It involved the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division and their efforts to prevent online gambling. There latest attempt involved contacting Internet Service Providers and telling them to block nearly 200 gaming sites from users around the state.
If you happened to miss this, here is a list of the citings they included:
The order violates the U.S. Commerce Clause, which was created to prevent undue intrastate trade restrictions.
A federal statute cited in the order does not provide the authority needed to block Internet access to the sites.
The order violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which allows us the right to free speech.
Another portion of the lawsuit included lack of access for people who had the ISP, but didn’t live in Minnesota. These individuals would also have the gaming sites blocked.
The mission of iMEGA is to foster cooperation between the online gaming and entertainment industry and the government. It promotes creative and the open use of the Internet to all users. iMEGA is also well known as activist in the fight to protect the rights of the gaming community. They are also recognized as heading legal battles in Kentucky and at a federal level, stating that censorship of Internet access establishes a dangerous precedent that would allow government intrusion into the online world.
Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo felt that the order was justified and slammed IMEGA for their efforts. However, it was representative Willems who countered the remarks with a few of his own. He said that if the US allowed this kind of order to go unpunished, it would only be a matter of time before we would become like China. In short he believed that this order went against the laws that were already in place by law enforcement officials.
When it was all said and done, IMEGA mailed letters to Internet Service Providers explaining that they were not obligated to block access to the online gaming world. It will take time to figure out what type of long term effects there will be on the gaming society. However, we have an idea of where the online gaming industry is headed. Some of those companies contacted were Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T.
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