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heard such nonsense? That Jew for jesus went on to
say, " We 've got to speak to the people in terms they
under st and. And Pac-Man offers us that opportunity."
But di sparaged Pac-Man, that' s what they" done!
You ca n believe it. That's Midway's opinion and mine
too!
(EDITOR ' S NOTE: In the interest of fairness , we ' ve
reprod uce d on the following page the entire
religiou ~ tract that Bally/ Midwa y did not want
circulat ed so our readers can see for themselves
whethe r Pa c -Man was disparaged o r not. To their
credit, t he Jews for Jesus said it was all right for us to
reprint their entire tract fre e of charge. We didn ' t
bother to ask Midway because we ' re on their side
anywa ys .)
Now I really don 't know wh at Midway means by
disparaged, but it Q)ust mean the Jews fo"r jesus didn ' t
pay to use it. So Midway can stop 'em from using it. A
company as big as Bally/ Midway can do that, you
know. They can make those Jews for Jesus . pay
because they own the copyright and can do anything
they damn well want to . Now, if the Jews for jesus
woulcf've made a suitable offer to sell their brand of
Christianity, like everyone else who 's paying Midway
so they can sell their Pac-Man rugs and Pa €-Man trash
cans and Pac-Man toilet seat covers, then I guess the
jews for jesus wouldn ' t be disparaging Pac-Man
anymore.
Now I also understand Midway is·working on a plan
whereby priests, ministers, and rabbis could tell all
the Pac-Man parables they want, and it wouldn 't cost
them anymore than the second collection plate. The
hitch here is Midway has to be assured it's not getting
ripped off by the churches. There are two plans
Midway is reportedly considering: (1) installing an
elaborate metering system in each pew of each
church and t2) the feasibility of dispatching their own
collectors to handle the churches ' collections for
them.
And that sounds fair to me. After all , Bally/ Midway
is a big company.
Now I know what some people are going to say. I
hear the same thing at home from my wife , who is
religious-not very religious , mind you , only some-
what religious. But I hear it from her anyway. She tells
me, "How can Midway claim their copyright gives
them the right to censor religious expre>sion? "
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"But they're not censoring anything, Dear," says I,
speaking the Midway line, I think. " They just want to
get paid what's due them ."
"And what if Midway doesn't approve of what a
religious group like the Jews for Jesus has to say .
Couldn't they just not sell them the rights at any
price?" she asks.
"Well, I guess so," says I. "But if they did so, they ' d
have their reasons. And far be it from me to question
any of those reasons."
Then she pops out with , "Doesn't Midway know
th e topyright law doesn 't give them that right?
Doesn't Midway know Congress doesn ' t have the
power to pass any laws which infringe on the histori-
cal separation of Church and State? How then can
th ey stop a religious group from circulating religiou s
literature?"
Now my wife ' s got a legal mind. Hlat's why I
married her. But she's gotta be wrong on this one .
After all, Bally/ Midway' s a big company, and the y
never woulda gone and done this if they didn't have
good lawmen that thought they couldn't win the case
and get 'em some more money, if that's what Midwa y
wants.
6ut it' s what my brother says what really bothers
me . Now he's religious too, very religious-! mean
very~ very religious. Born again and, all that. When he
read in the newspaper what Midway had gone and
done, he called me up and said, "They've gone too far
this time. "
(( Who are you talking about, " I asks.
" Why , those arrogant people at Midway," sa ys he.
" Suing someone who is just trying to get the word of
God out. Why, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if
the Moral Majority rose up in righteous indignat ion
and tried to smite down every one of those Pac- M an
parlors popping up all over the country ."
(( Well , Midway just better pray it doesn ' t come to
that," says I. Then I hear my brother sort of laughin g
on the other end of the telephone. " What are
laughing at?" I asks.
" Who is Midway going to pray to? " he C! sks.
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cc: Andrei Gromyko
(Editor ' s Note: Permission to reproduce th is
copyrighted article is granted herein ... Free of charge,
by the way.]
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