Rictor

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...18/ixhome.html

Monopoly fights to clear gangs off streets
By Leo McKinstry and Rajeev Syal
(Filed: 18/01/2004)


A children's board game that glorifies drug-dealing, prostitution and armed robbery is at the centre of legal action because the makers of Monopoly claim that it is too similar to their game.

Ghettopoly, currently sold in Virgin Megastores to children as young as 13, uses a Monopoly-style board to portray in graphic form the extremes of urban ganglife.


'Playas' receive cash for getting their neighbourhood hooked on drugs
The traditional pieces of the dog, the hat and the iron have been replaced by the marijuana leaf, the pimp and the sub-machine gun.

Instead of buying houses and hotels, participants buy crack houses and brothels. They progress around the board by peddling crack cocaine, raiding banks or visiting sex shows.

Solicitors working for Hasbro Europe, the games giant that owns the rights to Monopoly, claim that Ghettopoly is trading off their product's good name. They have launched a High Court legal action against a number of companies in Britain that are selling and distributing the game.

James Graham, the legal counsel for Hasbro Europe, the maker of Monopoly, said: "Legal action is pending against the importers and distributors of this game."

He said that Hasbro Europe had already taken action against HMV, the high street music retailer, to stop the game's sale in more than 50 record stores. "HMV and Hasbro have settled Hasbro's claim." He declined to confirm that his clients would be suing Virgin.

Ghettopoly was invented by David Chang, 28, from Philadelphia, the son of Taiwanese immigrants. His inspiration was the music channel MTV and the lyrics of rap songs and hip-hop.

The game has already run into legal difficulties in the United States, where Hasbro, a US-based company, has launched legal action against Mr Chang for breach of copyright and trademark infringement.

Mr Chang has previously admitted that the game is similar to Monopoly but added that there are significant differences. While the original game's box shows a dandy wearing a top hat, tails and a monocle, the "gangsta"version shows an aggressive black man with a cannabis joint in his mouth and a gun in one hand.

Ghettopoly uses inner-city American locations such as the Bronx and Harlem rather than the well-known places of the British version of Monopoly, such as Mayfair and Park Lane.

Players - or "playas" to use Ghettopoly's own slang - try to win by building up a collection of "crack houses" around the board.

Crack pipes, hookers and loan sharks all feature in the game. "Ghetto Stash" cards - which replace the Community Chest cards from the traditional game - have been singled out for their outrageous statements.

"You got the whole neighbourhood addicted to crack," reads one. "Collect $50 from each playa."

Another reads: "You just found out that you knocked up your old lady. Pay $150 for an abortion." This card is illustrated with a drawing of a coat hanger and a pool of blood.

Dr Martin Luther King, the revered civil rights leader, is also mocked in the game. He is pictured on a card, scratching his crotch and saying: "I have an itch" - a parody of his "I have a dream" speech.

Among the so-called "Hustle Cards", that replace the traditional Chance cards, is the instruction: "It's past midnight and you're feeling horny. Go straight to Cheap Tricks Avenue".

This week, the game will be examined by the Metropolitan Police Authority, the independent body that scrutinises Britain's biggest police force, after a member called for it to be withdrawn from all British shops.

Peter Herbert, who is also the chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers, said that he would raise the question of the game at an authority meeting on Thursday: "I will ask Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to join me in calling for Virgin to stop selling this terrible game," he said.

"It is not a bit of fun. It seeks to reinforce stereotypes of the way young black men are supposed to act and capitalises on their deaths as a result of gun crime in Britain and the US," he said.

"Virgin may care to consider whether they would sell Monopoly-type games which capitalise on the genocide in Rwanda, or community strife in Northern Ireland. If this is thought to be appropriate, why not go the whole offensive hog and have a 9/11 board game?"

In the USA, civil rights leaders have expressed their anger, describing the game as "the corporate denigration of African-Americans".

Virgin Megastores said last week that they would continue to stock the game, claiming that it has been selling "like wildfire" and have so far sold almost 3,000 copies in Britain.

"It's an irreverent take on Monopoly and it bears far more relation to modern life than buying hotels in Mayfair," a spokesman said. "It's just a game and we don't want to be censorial about what people can buy.

If we were to go down the road of censorship, then we would have to empty much of the stock in our stores. We're not in the business of thinking about who might be offended by certain products."

A spokesman for Mr Chang in the Ghettopoly offices in Philadelphia said that he could not comment because of the pending legal cases. "Mr Chang is very proud of the product," the spokesman said, adding that he is planning further games, including Redneckopoly, Hoodopoly and Thugopoly.

mailman

i bought that game for my brother at christmas but he has yet to use it

tbabe

gotta get that game

bhutocracy

Ash@phpFX

thats incredible, i bet the makers will loose in court though

maxdaname

hahahahaha REDNECKOPOLY comming soon

chuk

Sounds like a good time.

TomsPics

I bought it few months back, get's old after awhile ;/

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Doctor Dre

:P yea this is like a year old . this has been banned in yahoo aucitons or something

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Rictor

The news article and lawsuit are new though.

ATL_Ryan