A federal judge has put the brakes on a lawsuit filed over sex scenes buried in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
In a decision on Wednesday (full text), United States District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram wrote that purchasers of the game could not be lumped together in a class action. The claims of members of the proposed class would be affected by the law in each purchaser’s home state, Judge Kram wrote, and therefore could not be resolved in a single proceeding in federal court in New York.
“Accordingly, the court decertifies the settlement class on the grounds that common issues do not predominate over individualized issues,” the judge wrote.
The judge’s latest decision undermines a settlement agreement reached between lawyers for purchasers of the game who contended they were offended by the hidden scenes, on the one hand, and lawyers for the game’s makers, Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games.
Of the millions of people who purchased the game with the scenes, fewer than 3,000 applied for compensation from a fund established under the settlement agreement.
A lawyer for the game makers, Jeffrey S. Jacobson at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, said that the decision was under review. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached for comment.
The civil lawsuit was filed after the disclosure of the sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in 2004. The existence of the scenes, accessible to knowledgeable players using third-party software, drew fierce condemnation from lawmakers and sparked a frenzy online. The suit accused the game’s makers of defrauding buyers by failing to disclose the scenes.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...o-hits-a-snag/