A proposal to restrict the sale of violent video games in Massachusetts has caused famed horror author Stephen King (pictured left), who admits he is no fan of video games, to speak out against what he refers to as the government's surrogate parenting.

"According to the proposed bill, violent video games are pornographic and have no redeeming social merit," he wrote in an Entertainment Weekly column. "What makes me crazy is when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous. Not to mention undemocratic."

Designated HB 1423, the state legislation would limit the sale of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18. "Which means, by the way, that a 17-year-old who can get in to see Hostel: Part II would be forbidden by law from buying (or renting, one supposes) the violent but less graphic Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," King pointed out. "If there's violence to be had, the kids are gonna find a way to get it."

Instead of a state-mandated restriction on violent game sales--many of which have been found to be unconstitutional in the past--King suggested that parents make an effort to take a more active role in raising their children as video games are not the only readily available source of violence in America.

"There's a lot more to America's culture of violence than Resident Evil 4," he explained. "Parents need to have the guts to forbid material they find objectionable...and then explain why it's being forbidden. They also need to monitor their children's lives in the pop culture--which means a lot more than seeing what games they're renting down the street."

Some follow-up to that bit about Stephen King selling chapters of his book on the internet in an attempt to bypass publishers. It seems to have been a success in some points, but a failure in others. Most amazingly they are claiming to have actually hit the 75% paying readers goal (!?!?) but the actual number of people paying for the first chapter is only in the 40,000 range. (awww.. poor guy only made $40,000 for his first chapter of a book)

"When the dust settles, Marsha and I are hoping - quite reasonably, we think - for a pay-through rate of 85-90 per cent. [snip] Regarding sales, King admitted they weren't equal to the previous book he sold online, Riding The Bullet, but said that the publicity campaign for this second book had been smaller.

This kind of strategy and the surprising success they are claiming could have some interesting possible impacts on other industries. (read: games) Well, maybe..

Here's something for 'fight the man' day. Famed author Stephen King is posting a portion of one of his books on the net for download. It's a new work called The Plant. Mr. King is trying something new. He's looking to publish a book on the net without the middle man book publishers (Who take a large chunk of profits). Lookie:

...a chance to become Big Publishing's worst nightmare. Not only are we going glueless, look Ma, no e-Book! No tiresome encryption! Want to print it and show it to a friend? Go ahead! There's only one catch: all this is on the honor system.

Mr. King says he'll publish at least the first 2 parts, and if the experiment works out and 75% of the people who grab the document send in $1 a piece, he'll continue to publish more of the story. Thanks JCal @ Stomped