Thumbprint Required To Trade Used Games

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
What the hell is going on in Florida? Thumbprints required to trade in used games? Are stolen video games that big of a problem in the sunshine state?

Broward County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kayla Concepcion said the new requirement comes straight from the Florida Legislature, which enacted a law... that treated video games like second-hand goods sold at pawn shops. Now any store buying used video games has to collect the thumb prints, along with a bunch of other personal info about the seller.
Click to expand...
 
I'm in Florida. One of my brothers stupid friends stole my Red DS. When I noticed I went to Gamespot and there it was with the marking I had on it. They said they could only sell it back to me for the price it was being sold at.


I don't see how this helps though. Even if you know who stole it there isn't much you can do unless never have them at your place again. Besides that nothing else unless there is something worked out where this law ends up with someone getting their item back without having to buy it back.


Even then, with the massive taking law enforcement has with Florida's problem with illegal people sneaking people from South/Central America and Carribean, Drugs being snuck in, money laundrying, corrupt politicians (had two busted on cocain smuggling and money laundering) I'm not sure this is the right thing to put effort into.
 
Well if they are doing this with pawn items there already, I don't see the big deal to not exclude video games.

I guess drivers licenses don't work because a majority of their customers for games are kids or those without licenses.
 
hehe that this story made me smile...thanks Steve, my faith in humanities stupidity renewed!
 
martinmsj said:
I'm in Florida. One of my brothers stupid friends stole my Red DS. When I noticed I went to Gamespot and there it was with the marking I had on it. They said they could only sell it back to me for the price it was being sold at.


I don't see how this helps though. Even if you know who stole it there isn't much you can do unless never have them at your place again. Besides that nothing else unless there is something worked out where this law ends up with someone getting their item back without having to buy it back.


Even then, with the massive taking law enforcement has with Florida's problem with illegal people sneaking people from South/Central America and Carribean, Drugs being snuck in, money laundrying, corrupt politicians (had two busted on cocain smuggling and money laundering) I'm not sure this is the right thing to put effort into.
Click to expand...
oh man i walked into gamestop the other day. the night before my psp went missing that had my intials scratched in the back. wouldnt you know it one of the kids that was at the party was there. he started looking nervous as soon as he saw me, i took a peak at the back of the psp, saw my intials, cussed him out, gave him a pair of black eyes and had a nice day :)
 
I imagine gamestop is going to chime in saying this will result in reduced sales. Frankly, I don't blame them if they do, this is a ridiculous law which is really unjust.

Criminals give their fingerprints, not the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty.

Cmon guys, these are fundamentals in your own society.
 
BloodyIron said:
I imagine gamestop is going to chime in saying this will result in reduced sales. Frankly, I don't blame them if they do, this is a ridiculous law which is really unjust.

Criminals give their fingerprints, not the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty.

Cmon guys, these are fundamentals in your own society.
Click to expand...

Except you get printed after your arrest, not your conviction.

Besides, I don't think the state gets ahold of these prints anyway, They're likely kept by whoever purchases the used games in the event they're ever needed for comparison purposes.
 
BloodyIron said:
I imagine gamestop is going to chime in saying this will result in reduced sales. Frankly, I don't blame them if they do, this is a ridiculous law which is really unjust.

Criminals give their fingerprints, not the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty.

Cmon guys, these are fundamentals in your own society.
Click to expand...

But.... unless they comply, they could be held responsible for selling stolen goods.

I actually think this is a good thing. In Tucson, AZ, there is a chain store called Bookman's. They sell mostly used books but also have a pretty big electronics area as well. Any electronics that are traded in require you to sign a paper that says the goods are yours to sell as well as a valid driver's license. They also write down the serial number on the sheet and keep records. It has been this way for quite a while.. probably 10 years at least. Makes the store not liable in case any stolen goods end up there as well as helps the law enforcement know who traded in stolen goods.
 
BloodyIron said:
Criminals give their fingerprints, not the innocent. Innocent until proven guilty.

Cmon guys, these are fundamentals in your own society.
Click to expand...
Lets see, I've seen people give finger prints to cash a check (not at their bank), I've seen people finger printed in case they might be kidnapped, I've seen people finger print when they get a drivers license... etc.

Sorry the whole "only criminals give fingerprints" doesn't really hold any water.
 
That being said, it surprises the hell out of me that they don't require a drivers license or other form of state issued identification when you trade stuff in.
 
Tell me, how in the hell are fingerprints going to do a goddamn thing? It's a piece of software, nothing more. In the case of pawn shops people are usually getting rid of physical items, usually worth at least a little bit, and have serial numbers which can be tracked. This is done so police can identify stolen merchandise. How does this apply to software? Is someone going to report their video game stolen and give the cops the CD key for identification? Highly unlikely. Are the cops even going to bother trying to track down a piece of software? Not a chance.

Please, someone come up with a reason why this actually helps anyone.

 
I am sad to say I am a Floridian and I am ashamed of this. Our state govt. here must of gotten into some bad happy juice. They are always making stupid laws.
 
I am just wondering what statue the sheriff is referring to. Sounds like someone is misinterpreting a law. The thing that makes me think this the most is that the sheriff mentioned pawnbrokers. Video game chain stores are NOT pawnbrokers, so if the sheriff is basing this in any way on statute 539.001 The Florida Pawnbroking Act, then he is mistaken. Everything in that section applies only to companies that actually PAWN items. If you just buy and resell without the PAWN portion then you are not a pawnbroker and that section does not apply to any aspect of your business.

IANAL though, so I may be missing something... Still, that is the way that statute reads to me. Also, another comment on the OP mentioned that it is the state pawn form. So that implies they are being treated as pawnbrokers even though legally they aren't pawn brokers. There of course may be some other statute that applies that I am not aware of.
 
I'm glad i moved away from florida alittle bit ago...I have nothing good to say about the whole state...and i lived there for 22 years...I don't even wanna visit it again, but will due to family obviously.
 
along time ago when i lived in colorado, i had a house party and someone stole my n64 and all my games. the next day when i found out i went too all the local pawn shops and asked if anyone had bought one that day, one was able to match the serial numbers from my box too my n64 they had bought. they called the cops and due to finger print required to pawn stuff busted the dude, and gave me my n64 and games back, they also gave me a set of 12" eclipse subs the dude had pawned. no idea where those came from lol.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Lets see, I've seen people give finger prints to cash a check (not at their bank), I've seen people finger printed in case they might be kidnapped, I've seen people finger print when they get a drivers license... etc.

Sorry the whole "only criminals give fingerprints" doesn't really hold any water.
Click to expand...

Volunteering your fingerprints is different from having your fingerprints required by the state.
 
Spewn said:
Except you get printed after your arrest, not your conviction.
Click to expand...

People don't get arrested for the hell of it (thank god). You get arrested because, at the very least you were doing something that constituted "probable cause" to the police officer to come and see wtf was going on. Put it this way: if you're driving all over the road and the police pull you over, the first thing he's going to do is give you a breathalyzer, and if you fail, chuck you in the back of his cruiser. He's not going to come up and say "Oh hai you're all over the road (and thus I have probable cause), I need a fingerprint".

Point about that was, you can really get printed only after probable cause has been found against you, it just doesn't happen in terms of "fingerprinting" because it's much easier and more accurate to do it down at the station with a technician who hopefully knows what they're doing instead of on the hood of a police cruiser, but you can be damn sure that the equivalent happens when the police cruiser runs your plates through his computer after he pulls you over.

And the point to connect this to the article is, just trying to trade-in a video game isn't grounds for probable cause, no matter how much of the trade-in traffic at a certain store in a certain state happens to be illegal. The real, actually dangerous slippery slopes are the ones you don't realize you're on - for all of you trying to rationalize this by saying "oh yeah, I give out my thumbprint every day, why should I care" there will be 5 more guys trying to rationalize "oh yeah, he definitely had the right to pull me over at 3 AM because there's a good chace I could be doing something shady at 3 AM" and then say helloooo to defacto curfew and reduced civilian rights
 
I ain't giving my fingerprints to the government, ever. Seems insane to be telling kids "It's ok, its just your government, go ahead and give them your fingerprints".

Just sell the games on Craigslist or Ebay, and skip the bullshit.
 
Reminds me of this dumb ass kid when I lived in New Mexico. He would steal from Hastings, then a couple days later after he played the games, would bring them back to Hastings to trade in/sell. Used to piss me off, and still to this day big companies don't care about what they take back. I think fingerprinting is stupid, however, and wouldn't really do much except add more people to afis.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top