Take-Two Grand Jury summons
p2p news / p2pnet: How much did Take-Two Interactive’s bosses really know about the notorious Hot Coffee animated sex scenes secretly stashed in its equally notorious Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?
A grand jury wants to know.
Among other things, the company is already being sued by shareholders for, they say, failing to keep the board informed on issues centering on the Hot Coffee scenes, and by the city of Los Angeles for, "deceptive marketing practices and fraudulent manipulation of an industry rating system" to sell the game as ‘mature’ when it should have been marketed as ‘adults only’."
Now Take-Two says on June 19, it received grand jury subpoenas from the District Attorney of the County of New York, "requesting production of documents, covering various periods beginning on October 1, 2001, including:
Those relating to: the knowledge of the Company’s officers and directors regarding the creation, inclusion and programming of hidden scenes (commonly referred to as ‘hot coffee’) in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the submission of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the Entertainment Software Rating Board for a rating, and the Company’s disclosures regarding hot coffee; disclosures and presentations by the Company of certain events, including acquisitions, partnering arrangements and earnings results; invoices from, payments to, and termination of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and retention of Ernst & Young LLP; acquisitions by the Company in 2005; certain compensation and human resources documents with respect to the Company and certain of its current and former officers and directors; and documents concerning the activities of the Company’s Board of Directors and Committees thereof.
It’s fully cooperating, it says, and hasn’t been told if anyone in particular, "is presently a target of the investigation".
Also See:
sued by shareholders – Shareholders go after Take-Two, February 17, 2006
fraudulent manipulation – LA sues GTA San Andreas co, January 27, 2004
Take-Two – Statement by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, June 26, 2006
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June 27th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
This is soooooo American……
June 27th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Actually, it’s worser.. it’s a case of fully blown morale panic, which is rampant in most countries around the world.
(but I have to admit, the americans do tend to have deeper double morale than most countries)
June 28th, 2006 at 4:54 am
It is indeed worse. The idea here appears to be worse than the actual content they are squabbling over. The characters plainly have their clothes on, what remains is suggestive only. Far worse are seen in the music vids the cartels put out which by the way aren’t cartoon characters but rather closer to real life. However, somehow we don’t see them being brought to task over it.
There’s also the problem that the fundament religious movement is behind this idea that violence is a problem in games. They said the same thing about comic books in my day and age. I learned to read with comic books and to this day, I have no inclination to jump off a multistory building, rob a bank, or go have a fight for the heck of it. Nor do I plan on being some sort of serial rapist or killer. Not just me but literally hundreds of thousands of kids read those mags and didn’t turn out as predicted.
Making the simplistic claim that intertainment is the root source, ignores the real causes and covers them up with feelgood. The real source for the most part is home upbringing and the government should never have a say in how you raise your kids as far as getting into the family itself without good cause above and beyond some religious polical party ambitions.
Social services is supposed to protect kids but I personally know that some people abuse that. I’ve known some that because they have a beef with another individual to try and use social services as a get back tool; that’s low. No actual action was the reason for the call to social services but rather the filed complaint was used to create headaches for the parents just because it was an easy way to do it without having to have the balls to say who they are. It’s all anonymous when dealing with reports by social services and is a prime example of why the government should have far less say than they now do. I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for social services but I am saying the oppurtunity to abuse it is just too easy.