Cencorship of of a video game- is it a free speech issue?

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- A lawsuit by Haitian groups that asks for the top-selling video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" to be removed from store shelves will be decided in federal court.

Haitian civil rights groups filed the lawsuit because the game instructs players to "kill the Haitians" and awards points for each kill.

The suit was filed December 23 in state circuit court in Palm Beach County. Attorneys for Rockstar Games Inc. opted to move the case to federal court, and that motion was granted Tuesday. No hearing dates were immediately set.

New York-based Rockstar Games has agreed to remove the offensive line from future versions of the award-winning video game that has sold 11 million copies.

But the Haitian organizations, led by the Haitian-American Coalition of Palm Beach County, have also asked for more than $15,000 in damages.

The lawsuit takes on heavyweights in the video game industry, including Rockstar Games, its parent company Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment, the Microsoft Corp., and retailers Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

The manufacturer of the game, in which an ex-convict is hired to recover stolen drug money in the streets of Miami, has been harshly criticized for its portrayal of Haitians.

Earlier this month, about 100 Haitian-Americans demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart Supercenter in nearby Boynton Beach chanting, "Stop Vice City."

Attorneys for the Haitian organizations and the video game manufacturer did not return phone calls late Wednesday.

Should it be banned?
Ok, depending on my mood the answer is either VERY simple, or VERY complex... I played "DOOM" when I was younger, and I loved it- but in that game you were killing imaginary monsters - not random innocent people- or people based on their race. In Doom you were trying to fight off a violent invading force- In Grand Theft you are killing whoever gets in your way in the commission of a crime...

Does a video game constitute 'speech'? I want to make it clear- I strongly oppose cencorship. But, most mass murderers start off torturing animals as part of their desensitizing process. Do games like these play the same role?

We ban children from going into adult bookstores- (arguably, such material falls more under the heading of 'speech' than video games), why isthe senseless random killing of pedestrians any less (if not MORE) of a corrupting influence than porn?

On the other hand, where would it stop? Would we then have religious nuts lobbying against any game that has spell casting? Would PETA lobby against games that involve killing of any animals? Pretty soon the only games on the market would involve picking flowers- and even then ELF and Sierra Club would lobby against that!