The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have officially dropped their support of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA, and its Senate counter-part, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), are both controversial pieces of legislation that were shelved earlier today much to the relief of many gamers.
As part of SOPA, the act could have limited video game streaming, threatened content creation, and potentially ruined gaming communities as it would have stifled free speech online. The ESA, which includes members like Sony, Nintendo, and EA, said in a statement that, "From the beginning, ESA has been committed to the passage of balanced legislation to address the illegal theft of intellectual property found on foreign rogue sites."
They continued, "Although the need to address this pervasive threat to our industry's creative investment remains, concerns have been expressed about unintended consequences stemming from the current legislative proposals. Accordingly, we call upon Congress, the Obama Administration, and stakeholders to refocus their energies on producing a solution that effectively balances both creative and technology interests. As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection and are committed to working with all parties to encourage a balanced solution."
The ESA had been strong supporters of SOPA and we can understand why a video game organization would want to stop online piracy. They, and by association all of their members, now join companies like Epic Games and Riot Games who stand against the bill.
What do you think of the ESA's decision to drop their support of SOPA? Let us know.
Source: Kotaku
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geomancer21
on the one hand i say good for them. Glad they are standing against it.
on the other, its only AFTER some estimated 13 million people online were actively protesting through petitions and whatnot, AFTER numerous developers came out against it, AFTER the government itself came out against it, and AFTER the bills had been selved, that they decide to come out and say, "hey, we're with you my brothers, we hate this too". to which I say, you can go to hell.
Jackson045
Jackson045's comment is abusive and has been removed.
wolfman2010
Wait a minute... Totally realized an unintentional quote from Half-Life: "Unintended Consequences"... or rather, "Unforseen Consequences" but pretty close. Right? o.0
kinghunter64
Im glad sony, nintendo, and the others dropped the support, it was kinda buggin me
Aegis_Leingod
In my theory, I think when government forced the shutdown of mega uploads, even if it was coincidence or not, it was showing how far they would go before the bill was even past. And due this this action many supporters finally came to the realization that this bill was just plain bad and was put of the "back burner" cause so many politicians said nope after the shutdown. The only reason i can think of why government did this was to show that they can and will shut you down.
Plus in my head this could of been handle a couple different ways instead of a full shutdown
Government could of taken over mega upload and used it as a way to catch pirated stuff and still retain it as a "cyber-locker" as one article i read called it. Cause a great deal of people used it and they weren't pirates.
Anything thing that just bothers me is the founders and co owners that were arrested can just buy them self out of jail, time, and possibly the trial too. This is all theory and speculation, cause i dont know of any hard facts as of yet.
torres00
we need to wake up where losing more and more freedom every day this government is getting to big we have given them to much power over us it's time to wake up please ...
micrapple
You support it and then you don't. I still don't support you. Sometime I thought G4 comment is control by SOPA.
micrapple
You support it and then you don't. I still don't support you.
CareyGrant
"unintended consequences?" Lie. If a very large group of people hadn't made a huge stink about SOPA and PIPA the ESA and all the other supporters and politicians would still be full-steam-ahead to pass them. What's happening know is just one giant game of cover-your-@ss.
Moral: people have more power than the think, and definitely more than the corporations and politicians would like us to think. They prefer us lazy, apathetic, stupid and ill-informed - makes us easier to mislead and control.
DigitalGibs
perhaps the "unintended consequence" was the push back from the people who pay their electric bill. maybe they will actually bother to poll their clients before making bold statements in the future.
darylcorey
We don't need a new law. What we need is harsher punishements and better enforcement of preexisting ones.
alukard18
some faith in humanity has been restored
shootmister
I don't support it and i think its dumb but its kind of soicites fault because we keep letting the government have control over things it shouldent be able to touch but we just keep letting them have more and more control soon it will come to where something like this is passed if America dosent shap up. After the 1960's America has been going down hill it used to be a very Independent country but now we have china to make all our crap because we dont want to shell out a couple more bucks for something made here. China has basically copied our fighter jet design and they make so many of the parts that go into our Smart bombs and weapons its not funny. We shouldent even be trading with them in the first place because there communist and America is no supposed to support that crap. But we do dont know why. On a little side note only 5% of china's economy comes from Exports most of it is in Infrastructure right now. So they are becoming even more modern and are a severe threat to the world. Oh and by the way a lot of the money that China is making they are putting it into Raw resources and stockpiling so they could easily start a War even if we do finally put an imbargo on there stuff. But I do respect China for being able to get things done and not just sit on there butts but those damn commies. Ok enough ranting and bad spelling for now. :D
Hydrafiend
YAY!!!!!
Aerindel_Prime
Funny how every other news article I read on this discloses who owns the company and where they stand on SOPA. For example, MSNBC states that its a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC and that Microsoft publicly opposes SOPA and NBC is member of Comcast which supports it.....as is G4.
scoobythebeast
So they switch sides on the same day the bill gets shelved? Good timing :P
crocodilius
sure, now that Megaupload is dead lets drop it!
im still trying to figure out how the fbi has jurisdiction
to arrest a german living in new zealand, though.
II TwentyOne II
The winner is Us
wolfman2010
Good. Next time you may want to think before you jump into a "protection" act like that.
Galloc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =sIbseM2ol2c
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