ESA Refuses To Pull SOPA Support

[DiMono]

Not to underplay how horrible this bill is, it's horrible but I think the tizzy everyone has got themselves worked into is waaaay premature.

People on the Internet over-reacting? Surely you jest.

I do agree with you though, that people are getting themselves too worked up about it at this point. It's important to track the bill's progress, and to make your disapproval of it known (once, to the relevant outlet), but constantly going on and on about it is tiresome and unproductive. It's a bad bill that shouldn't get passed. Until it's actually in danger of getting passed, there's not really any reason to worry about it. Track it, yes, but not worry about it.

 

[Fasckira]

Sorry, that picture's copyrighted. No Escapist for you!

...I'm not exaggerating. That's enough ground for them to go on, if the bill passes.

I lol'd

Thing is though its one thing to pass this bill but it doesn't mean its going to get enforced to the letter. To over simplify it, its the equivalent of giving a cop a can of pepper spray. Sure, they could spray everyone but you trust them only to spray those... wait, just realised a problem here....

 

[kebab4you]

Meh, Ive given up caring. Its not going to impact my ability to play games

But it will. It will drive many small and medium game developers out of business since they earn most of their money by having people discuss it on forums like these(reddit,4chan with more) which will have to shut down if SOPA passes.

 

[Something Amyss]

This is a good thing, right? I mean, the only people who care about our rights are pirates and apologists, right?

So when the ESA was fighting for the first amendment rights for videogames it called for us to help it. Now its turned against those who helped it during a critical time and basically flipped us all off and called us suckers.

Of course. They didn't care about our rights, or rights as a whole. This was all about their right to sell you stuff. Now that they have that, we can all piss off.

 

[Fasckira]

But it will. It will drive many small and medium game developers out of business since they earn most of their money by having people discuss it on forums like these(reddit,4chan with more) which will have to shut down if SOPA passes.

How? That doesn't make sense. The SOPA is regarding copyright infringement and is down to the copyright owner if they wish to shut down something. A small to medium size developer will not shut down someone talking about their game. Even if they had a publisher looking after them, the publisher wouldn't pursue it, it'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

I think all this talk of community sites shutting down is knee-jerking to be honest, with people assuming the worse case scenarios then amplifying them as they bounce their concerns off of each other.

Joking aside, Im relatively sure that the SOPA would only ever be used after warnings were given which would prevent community sites from being shut down on the spot.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

I have a feeling that the ESA just sees the whole "stop piracy" part of SOPA and hasn't had anyone look closely at the bill to see the things that are so very wrong with the game.

Granted, piracy's a big problem, but they're so desperate for a solution to solve this problem that they aren't checking to see if said solution is likely to screw over everyone involved.

---

How? That doesn't make sense. The SOPA is regarding copyright infringement and is down to the copyright owner if they wish to shut down something. A small to medium size developer will not shut down someone talking about their game. Even if they had a publisher looking after them, the publisher wouldn't pursue it, it'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

I think all this talk of community sites shutting down is knee-jerking to be honest, with people assuming the worse case scenarios then amplifying them as they bounce their concerns off of each other.

Joking aside, Im relatively sure that the SOPA would only ever be used after warnings were given which would prevent community sites from being shut down on the spot.

You'd be surprised what some people would do with this kind of power. Of course, no self-respecting developer would dare shut down a community forum if it was singing nothing but praises about their game. However, if a popular forum said, for instance, that Kane & Lynch 3: Because We Can was bad, there is a pretty good chance that SOPA could be used to, oh I don't know... shut them down.

SOPA is so broad that it risks the chances of people being unable to voice their opinions on a certain product or tribute a certain product or... do anything with a certain product for fear of getting absolutely killed by the corporate morons. Basically all lyric, AMV, or any type of music video, live or not, of any artist on YouTube that isn't given the greenlight by the publisher? Grounds for removal due to SOPA. Any LP or any type of game footage that isn't greenlit by the publisher or exempt from this due to a very specific clause (the same one that Bungie provided to allow Machinima makers to make Halo-related Machinima)? Grounds for removal due to SOPA. Those very funny meme videos from movies, TV shows, or anime? SOPA removal, asap.

And this is just YouTube. Stuff like GFaqs? Gone. Stuff like Ctrl+Alt+Del and Penny Arcade? Gone. Hey, there are also some copyrighted material on Facebook and Google+ that's also shared by people. GONE.

Corporate executives are two things: Moronic and paranoid. They're not going to look into anything that 'seems' like it's breaking copyright; either they don't have the power and don't have the attention to deal with it, or they're just SOPAing the crap out of it to preserve their product. The Internet, whether we like it or not, is partially built upon the use of copyrighted material, with or without valid use, and SOPA threatens to block every single damn thing it thinks may be a threat.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

But it will. It will drive many small and medium game developers out of business since they earn most of their money by having people discuss it on forums like these(reddit,4chan with more) which will have to shut down if SOPA passes.

How? That doesn't make sense. The SOPA is regarding copyright infringement and is down to the copyright owner if they wish to shut down something. A small to medium size developer will not shut down someone talking about their game. Even if they had a publisher looking after them, the publisher wouldn't pursue it, it'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

I think all this talk of community sites shutting down is knee-jerking to be honest, with people assuming the worse case scenarios then amplifying them as they bounce their concerns off of each other.

Joking aside, Im relatively sure that the SOPA would only ever be used after warnings were given which would prevent community sites from being shut down on the spot.

He was saying that the more selfish companies out there will take down sites like 4chan, youtube and facebook. Those places are where indie game companies get most of their publicity, so if they don't have those then no indie game will ever get as succesful as say Minecraft every again.

OT: If this passes then everything will be shut down. Every fan site, wiki, review site, blog could and probably will be shut down. A company could probably shut down the whole of the steam forums because one guy had a copyrighted name in their username. If this bill passes it will bring through the darkest and most selfish sides of all companies.

 

[Naeras]

Joking aside, Im relatively sure that the SOPA would only ever be used after warnings were given which would prevent community sites from being shut down on the spot.

The first five minutes of this video explains that problem here pretty well [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM]. Proves pretty nicely that SOPA won't be used "sensibly", because even the current system is apparently prone to abuse.

 

[Naeras]

Also, if you're reading this, please take ten minutes to read this article. [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111122/04254316872/definitive-post-why-sopa-protect-ip-are-bad-bad-ideas.shtml] It also explains why SOPA and PIPA are bad ideas.

 

[FalloutJack]

They never realize that this is the exact wrong way to do things. They're just banging their heads against the walls, because essentially...no one will ever accept it, everyone will find ways around it, and they'll be run ragged trying to do something about it...which will fail miserably.

 

[Pyramid Head]

Never mind the fact that it would cripple the internet, conflicts with the DMCA and would make it a nightmare for people who use copyrighted material under fair use to file counter claims, SOPA should be shot down because as a few experts are claiming, it won't work against piracy anyway. This entire bill is a fucking farce that will hurt legitimate websites and services while doing nothing more than mildly inconveniencing pirating sites. SOPA should have been laughed out of the congressional hearings but naturally, our politicians are fucking idiots who have made it clear they don't know any of the technical aspects involved.

Doesn't it just make you want to slap the bastard who came up with it in the first place? That said, i'm not surprised ESA didn't pull support but can at least be glad that a lot of game developing companies have started to pull support. It will hurt their customer base more than it will protect their wallets, and it's time they start realizing it.

 

[MetroidNut]

The First Amendment is great until it gets in your way, huh? I guess it would be foolish to expect more from them. They're a business interest group, not a consumer one - meaning they're not out to protect us, they're out to encourage legislation that benefits their members.

 

[asinann]

They got what they wanted out of the first amendment, they no longer care about it.

 

[renegade7]

So often it seems that "We support free speech" really means "We support OUR free speech" or "We want to be allowed to say and do whatever we want and sue the balls off anyone who disagrees with us."

 

[theultimateend]

The good news is that there is no way this bill will be a stepping stone for ever more restrictive control of the internet.

Similar to how the Patriot Act has lead to nothing bad. I mean how can you dislike something with such a positive name?

Stop Online Piracy, Yeah I get that. Lets all back this, it has a name that sounds like something I'd support so obviously its good.

"SOPA (originally E-PARASITE)" I wonder why they changed the name...or does "E-Parasite" not get the name support when in discussion.

Plus I mean...why do people keep talking about this? I remember history class pretty strongly. Every major turning point in humanity has been because people waited till it was too late to do anything and THEN voiced their opinion. Anyone remember Rosa Parks? She took her seat at the back of the bus and later wrote a letter that expressed her disdain for the rules of public transit.

So really, this is a nonissue. SOPA is obviously a good thing, just by the name, and its nothing but a waste of time to talk about it until its going to be passed. Because if you talk about it now, there might be some sort of indicator that shows public opinion on the bill. I much prefer to let politicians just make up such things.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

How? That doesn't make sense. The SOPA is regarding copyright infringement and is down to the copyright owner if they wish to shut down something. A small to medium size developer will not shut down someone talking about their game. Even if they had a publisher looking after them, the publisher wouldn't pursue it, it'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

I think all this talk of community sites shutting down is knee-jerking to be honest, with people assuming the worse case scenarios then amplifying them as they bounce their concerns off of each other.

Thing is, all it takes is one company deciding that a site that technically hosts copyrighted content to shut the whole thing down. Currently all they can do is shoot themselves in the foot by taking down their own content. So even if none of the video game companies are stupid enough to take out big-name sites, someone in one of the various entertainment industries out there might, and that's all it'll take to get the site permanently branded as a piracy site and shut down.

If ever there were a time for a boycott this is it. Don't buy anything; blacklist new releases from these people, make sure any game that an ESA member wants to release gets plastered with this info of how they hate free speech on the web.

Fine by me. I'm already refusing to buy any more music or movies until this bill is defeated. In fact, I'd propose a complete media blackout. No watching TV, no listening to the radio, not so much as even discussing mainstream media stuff online. Show them that not only is the Internet more important to us than their selfish business interests, it's more important than the whole goddamned industry. But it'll never catch on.

 

[ProjectTrinity]

Well practically everything I use on the internet these days are original images from my group. Soooooooo....uh....no *direct* effect for tiny developer. ^_^v

Lets hope this doesn't pass. I might actually need a site, if it so happens to close down. ' -' /Irony

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

there isn't a point caring anymore at this point. If it passes it passes, if not then so be it.. However I will hope that congress would get people in there that know what the hell they are talking about.