Dear Friend, ##COMPANY_NAME## has devoted itself to developing and publishing a wide array of software, including educational programs and family-oriented games. We know that violent games and pornography are more profitable, but prefer to make choices that reflect our personal values. Like you, we are very concerned about the use of violent images in TV, movies and software, and feel the most effective contribution we can make is to create and promote gentle alternatives. So you might think we'd be staunch supporters of Congressman Lantos's recent crusade against computer games. We're not. In fact, if Lantos gets his way, many small publishers and developers of wholesome, family-oriented software will cease to exist. Lantos has chosen to back the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), a consortium of a few foreign-owned cartridge game companies, in their efforts to force an unwieldy and unworkable review process onto the backs of American software producers and retailers. Ironically, billion-dollar giants Nintendo and Sega, promoters of the IDSA scheme, publish Mortal Kombat, the game Lantos cites most often as "filthy and disgusting". Yet he has chosen to ally himself with them! Lantos wants you to believe that only IDSA will rate games correctly. That's not true. The trade associations which represent over 3000 smaller publishers have a rating system that is objective and informative. But Lantos is demanding that everyone use the proposed IDSA system with its unnecessary technical requirements, publishing delays, intrusion into trade secrets, and high review costs. Additionally, Lantos says he'll create an expensive government bureaucracy to review the reviewers -- requiring you, the taxpayer, to pay the bill for something software publishers are already doing for free. No one has ever accused a PC or Mac software company of misleading anyone. The most violent (and best-selling) PC game is already rated with a parental warning on the box and the opening screen! The five major software trade organizations have already agreed to put ratings on their games. They will do it quickly, accurately, and without costing you a cent. Ratings can provide information about content. That's good for parents who might be confused about a product. But if the ratings system is designed to put the educational and alternative companies out of business, we'll all lose. Please write to your representatives in Washington, asking them to support the American software industry's plan for content labelling instead of an expensive and unmanageable system that will put small educational software companies out of business. Let them know you oppose Congresman Lantos's expensive "Video Game Rating Act of 1994". Thank you for your support. Sincerely, SHAREWARE AUTHORS NEED YOUR HELP! These are the gentlemen who are supporting the Video Game Rating Act of 1994: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman 316 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 202-224-4041 Senator Herbert H. Kohl 330 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 202-224-5653 Representative Tom Lantos 2182 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-3531 You may also want to write to: The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr. The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20501 Please also write to all the Senators and Congressional Representatives from your home state, letting them know that you oppose the Video Game Rating Act of 1994, along with Congressman Lantos's involvement in the IDSA ratings scheme. Please support the system developed by the five major American software trade associations: Software Publishers Association (SPA), ASP (Association of Shareware Professionals), STAR (Shareware Trade Association & Resources), ESC (Educational Software Cooperative) and ASAD (Association of Shareware Authors and Distributors). Thank you for supporting shareware and low-cost retail software!