Video Software Dealers Association v. Arnold Schwarzenegger(2009) of the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit and its Implication to the Korean Game Law
Min‐Sik Park, Seung-Heum Hwang · Journal of Korea Game Society · 2010
In Video Software Dealers Association v. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the federal 9th Circuit Court decided that a California law imposing restrictions and a labeling requirement on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors (the Act) violated rights guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution because: (1) the state introduced insufficient evidence to support a compelling interest that video games created psychological or neurological harm, (2) the Act was not the least-restrictive alternative to negate the harm, and (3) the lower, rational basis standard applicable to commercial speech did not apply to the Act's labeling requirements because the required label did not convey factual information. On the contrary, Korean Constitutional Court decided that Harmful Medium to Youth and Preliminary Rate Classification would be constitutional. However, under the least-restrictive method rule of the U. S. Court and Korean Court, overlap application of Harmful Medium to Youth and Preliminary Rate Classification could be a problem and it would be possible that stronger regulation among these would be found as unconstitutional.