19 Jan, 2012
The controversial U.S. bills SOPA and PIPA are causing a massive wave of opposition, and it doesn’t just stop in the States. Runescape creator Jagex and UK video games trade body TIGA are joining the fight against SOPA, saying that such a thing will be “inhibiting innovation.”
Many within the gaming industry have already voiced their outrage at the bills, and the list is going to keep on growing. Epic Games, Mojang, Red 5, and Runic are just a few of the studios who have publicly spoken out against SOPA.
“Jagex is fervently opposed to the proposed Stop online Piracy Act as it will essentially create a national censorship firewall for American internet users,” said Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard. “Specifically this could crush the community element of online gaming and could result in a huge lack of freedom of speech, creativity and opinion sharing.
“Secondary to providing compelling games Jagex provides a social platform for our own community which could be hugely affected, negatively impacting on community sharing, forum activity, even in-game chat.”
While SOPA has been temporarily shelved for revision, that’s not stopping lawmakers from trying to bring it back into the light. Sister bill PIPA, the Protect IP Act, is still going on to face a vote.
While current U.S. law states that only the creators of copyright-infringing material can be sued by the copyright owners, SOPA is planning on extending that to any website that carries such material. This would mean screenshots or tutorial videos posted on forums or informational websites would make that site liable for a lawsuit.
“The worry is that this legislation would expose online games businesses to damaging legal action while inhibiting innovation and leading to over-caution online, said TIGA’s Chief Executive Director Richard Wilson. “Video game companies could have to spend time and money analyzing the behavior of their users. TIGA understands the need to clamp down on rogue websites — those which blatantly make money from piracy and therefore restrict the profit margines of developers and digital publishers — but it believes SOPA would be a sledgehammer cracking a nut.”
Couldn’t have put it better ourselves. The real tragedy is that the very group that was created to protect and promote the video games industry in the States, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), is throwing all the money it can to support the bill. So far it has sunk close to $200,000 USD into supporting both SOPA and PIPA.
Backstabbing? Like a blundering rogue that somehow missed out on sneaking lessons.
In response to the ESA’s handling of the situation, Red 5 Studios founded the League for Gamers, an alternate group for both gamers and those within the gaming industry. For more information on their mission statement and news on SOPA, visit LFG.org.
Via Gamasutra, Digital Spy.
For those who don’t know what “web 2.0″ means, it is basically that the normal person can post their creations on the internet. This is done by services like youtube, facebook, myspace etc. Now, SOPA is going to be able to shut these sites down and any site who has even a single COMMENT BOX. Think about this: this site COULD be used by someone to post US stuff so this site can be shut down by SOPA. Immagine all the forums, blogs, and sites where you can write or post something… GONE. Unpleasent, right? While this might be only immagination now, it might turn to be real if SOPA passes.
What this would do: it would mean a regress to before web 2.0 and it would mean that our right to express our oppinion would be taken away. THIS IS A FIGHT ABOUT OUR RIGHTS, PLEOPLE.
Well… I am 10000000000% AGAINST SOPA as you might have noticed.