The Internet might be a great thing. But if you pass a state law that intersects with that behemoth out in the ether, you might receive the response state Rep. Michael Morley is getting.

Various groups, including one called the Video Game Voters Network, have started an e-mail writing campaign asking Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to veto Morley's HB353 — a bill that passed the Legislature without much controversy.

"I was told that there might be some crazies out there," says Morley, R-Spanish Fork, referring to those on the Internet who might oppose his bill after hearing misleading statements about it. But he says he ran the bill with the cooperation of the Utah Retailers Association, and its language passed muster of the Utah Attorney General's Office and the state Division of Consumer Protection.

Huntsman's spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said the governor's staff reads all e-mails received there. (Three people in the governor's constituent services office do this work.) "And we will take into account what our constituents have to say," says Roskelley, who declined to name any of the 453 bills passed by the Legislature that the governor may have concerns about as he takes his 20 days to either sign or veto.

Morley said that in the middle of the 2009 Legislature, which ended Thursday night, he was told that his picture showed up on Facebook, the popular social networking page, along with misstatements about what HB353 would really do. "I actually talked to some of these people who sent me crazy e-mails (from Facebook), and everyone I talked to, after I explained the bill and asked them to read it, didn't think that it would do" what various Web sites said it would.

In the case of the Video Game Voters Network, the site says that, should HB353 become law, it "will unfairly expose Utah video game stores to frivolous lawsuits" and "may lead retailers to stop enforcing the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating system, and from selling video games!"

Morley says nuts to that.

The bill says that if a retail store advertises that it doesn't sell M-rated video games to underage kids, and then does sell such games, it could be liable for civil action. "There is no criminal penalty. You won't see any sting operations" by law enforcement, says Morley.

Even more, if a store does advertise it won't sell to underage kids, and then actually does so twice, "they get a pass each time," no greater liability.

It is only on the third inappropriate sale that the store could face a civil action by an offended parent or someone else who may have been harmed. "And by that time the offending salesperson should have either been trained not to do it, or fired or moved to some other position in the store," he says, so it doesn't happen again.

"This is not the end of the world for video-game sales," Morley says. "We are not creating a litigious situation. No one should be concerned."

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com

For more information and opinions on this bill, please see several postings in our Video Game Blog.