The proposed Xbox 360 ban by Judge David Shaw of the International Trade Commission recently acquired some interesting opposition. Eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives fired off a missive to Chairman Deanna Okun of the ITC, pretty much begging her to ignore the suggestions of the obvious PS3 fanboy Shaw. The concerned Congress crew cited a few reasons to go along with their pleas, chief among them is the damage to the U.S. economy. The fear is that the Xbox exclusion would severely hamper growth in the Washington state region as well as cripple several third-party businesses that rely on the sale of the console to continue. Think companies that help make tech for the system as well as places that just make accessories, not just game developers and publishers – all would be hurt be the order.

The other biggie is that it would cut out competition in the industry by a third, leaving just Sony and Nintendo to duke it out. The numbers show that both companies would be winners in all this, the Xbox 360 is the top-selling console still. Another great point they make is it would crush those of us who already have Microsoft’s mean machine but might need to upgrade in the future. Everything we’ve spent on games and add-ons would be wasted and for a lot of us, that would be a significant amount of washed down the toilet money.

The ban itself is not a guaranteed thing right now, it must be approved by the commissioners of the ITC first. If they happen to side with Shaw, the matter then has to go to President Obama’s hefty pile of things to review. The oval office has 60 days to review it and either stamp it or trash it. If for some reason nothing happens, Microsoft can then hit up the Federal Appeals Court to resolve it.

And here I thought Congress was full of old fuddy duddys afraid of technology!

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