ESA gets behind SOPA

That's very disappointing. However, I've read protests are planned. Hopefully it's as effective as the GoDaddy one!

With a law like SOPA, you might as well send the whole population in jail, it will be faster.

you see,im against the current form of SOPA,but if it was put out there to stop piracy of games,then as unpopular as im going to be,im behind that,the idiots who pirate shouldn't be allowed to steal what's not their's as they see fit with no real chance of getting in trouble.

guys go here: << LINK REMOVED >> girls go here: << LINK REMOVED >> wear your disapproval proudly!

ESA meet your biggest nightmare, Anonymous. You should have expected them.

disgusting... ESA; Entertainment Stopping Association was it? :evil:

I don't believe in all that 2012 apocalypse bullcrap, But now I'm starting to think that THIS FREAKING BILL is gonna be the cause of it!

us government trying to get one step closer to owning your ass

@Thatsmypunk That is great news that Microsoft withdrew support. That's a huge blow against that side of the fence. This sort of flailing is reminiscent of the Napster outrage the recording industry tried to perpetuate, and in the end they were left in a weaker position. I guess it's easier for the MPAA to try an easy but ineffective scapegoat solution rather than try to actually address the problem, hence SOPA.

If the internet hadn't become the forefront of piracy, then this wouldn't have to happen. Needless to say, I will be surprised if the bill is passed. So much stuff will fall in popularity, and games won't be as popular or as sought after, either. There is a reason why Let's Players and trailers exist - to show gamers on the internet about games. If we lose that, then gaming loses a lot of money. It could even bring back the Video Game Crash of '83!

If a nuclear war ever does break out, Here's hoping that the ESA goes up in flames along with every other person supporting this bullcrap! ...Heck I wouldn't be suprised if THIS will be the cause of WW3.

Wow, ESA are just nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. If I hate Viacom for removing a trailer from Naughty Dog on YouTube because of a video title. I now hate ESA for doing this. Man I hate major US companies and ESA, You be shameful to yourself and you're the new GoDaddy who supports this piece of crap bill. If GoDaddy comes off the list, I hope they go next. If not, I will really fuming!!

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

simple undeniable fact, If SOPA passes Gamespot would be shut down in an instant, we all use copyrighted images in our avatars.

@Thatsmypunk Yes that is true but with every one that gets shot down the RIAA and MPAA just buy more supporters for the next one. SOPA has a solid chance of passing because the RIAA and MPAA have bought off a very large number of congressmen.

@redskinStu You have no idea what this bill could do, do you? It could for example literally send someone to prison for posting a homemade video with a copyrighted song playing in the background on the radio/phone ringtone/etc, blacklisting any sites they choose to and so on.:| It's not something limited to pirating software or music or whatever, it's about big companies strictly controlling everything when it comes to the internet, from what you are allowed see to what you are allowed to show. Similar to what communist China does. Are you getting the picture now?

Bills like this get proposed and shot down all the time. It's a waste of anyone's time to support it since the bill creators don't know how the internet works anyway. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo withdrew support the other day. SOPA will not pass.

I am horrified and disgusted with the ESA.

I would urge you all to support EFF against SOPA. If you look at their site (4th link on the article) they even have a nice form to contact the senators from your state (just put your zip code, the message is already written for you, but it's editable).

@redskinStu : Using that logic, the only people who are against laws like the Patriot Act are terrorists, right? If you think there's no problem with authorities being able to get a court injunction to incarcerate or censor something before proving it has broken the law then you really need to spend some time learning what the 5th amendment is, and why it's important.

Just out of curiosity how many people here have actually really read the bill, it is worded just vaguely enough that companies could shut down any negative product reviews.

@redskinStu I agree with rarson... as well he is right This is just being used to censor and filter news, what's depressing is that it will affect the world not just the USA. In the UK (I'm not sure about the USA) I have to actively seek information on this bill because news companies won't report on it because they want the internet to also be turned into a platform of misrepresented news.

@redskinStu "As it was first proposed, SOPA would allow the US government and copyright holders to request court orders against websites that are believed to be hosting infringing content." If you don't see what is wrong with that sentence, then I feel sorry for you. "Those who do not comply with the order risk having payment services and advertising channels severed, as well as being removed from search engine results and blacklisted by Internet service providers." So this basically gives the government the right to blacklist any website it wants to under the justification of "infringing content" (similar to the ridiculous clusterf*** of DMCA claims that killed youtube). If you think that the government is doing this to protect copyrighted content, you're extremely naive. It's all about controlling the flow of information, because they can't do that with an open internet.

The only people who have a problem with SOPA are people who want to steal intellectual property from those who created it. It's just like those opposed to photo radar speed traps. The only complainers are the ones who speed and break the law.

@yman173 your post needs to be stickied

o crap...

Of course the ESA would get behind this. The ESA doesn't stop underage kids or their parents from buying inappropriate games. SOPA won't stop piracy, or even affect it. They're both ineffective organizations created for political grandstanding (nevermind SOPA's immediate disregard for due process, which is in direct violation of the 5th amendment). They'll probably bathe together and take long walks on the beach and snuggle.

I really hope this doesn't pass strictly because this could pave the way for more censorship in America, I really don't care about piracy one way or another with the way the gaming industry has been lately.

Nazis

I dont like this situation. Even though I dont support Piracy at all, threats from Anonymous to Sony and all is really disturbing. Cant we all just end this? Piracy will always exist in any form. Wether or not someone support or not the act of piracy, leave them be. The world can be a better place with things like this to run along as usual

SOPA = Suck Or Piss A$$hole !!!!!

This is all about resale value! These greedy bastards want to make money off of selling something twice! They hate the word share!

@toddx77 I wouldnt say its because people are cheap but more so desperate. I dont doubt some people are just cheap or like to pirate just for no reason but most are desperate or couldnt afford it otherwise. Its still wrong and I will never support piraters but with systems and games rising in cost compared to older generations people are more eager to get their hands on products they otherwise wouldnt have the money for.

Shame on you ESA .......

@sieg6529 Um, Gamespot may be owned by CBS, but they don't support SOPA. They even linked an article saying that Gamespot is against this bill, while their parent company is for it.

SOPA is too weak IMO. Hell, let's send everyone in prison directly. LOL!

ESA, some of the companies you have listed are backing out (Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment, EA) of this, I suggest you do the same.

@Madgnad No, I was saying that with or without SOPA people are still going to pirate no matter what because they are too cheap to pay for things. But I do believe that society has somewhat brought this upon themselves because so many people pirate instead of buying. You could argue even if no body pirated SOPA would still has been made but the chances of it being made would probably have been lower.

SOPA is the very epitome of slippery slope. Unless the scope is narrowed and better defined, it's open to serious abuse.I can't believe GameSpot supports this crap, since it would be very vulnerable based on all the user-posted content.

@toddx77 I hope your not saying that SOPA is a good idea because if so you have absolutely no clue as to what this bill is capable of doing. << LINK REMOVED >>

lol nobody took gaming-pirates serious in the 80ties..Now ur earning the millions and suddenly pirates costs jobs?? Lies u just want the milliondollar raise, greedy bastards.

@Spacerac For people like us it would make sense to just pay $10 a month for netflix or hulu to watch all the shows we wanted, but there are so many people who would rather pirate simply to save a buck or two. Take the new shonen jump alpha starting this month. Its going to have one piece, naruto, and bleach for only 63 cents a week and only be 2 weeks behind the japanese release. I'm sure it will do well but there is going to be a large number of anime fans who will still not buy it and continue to pirate because they don't think they should have to pay for manga. I remember when itunes first starting selling anime for only $1.99 an episode there were anime fans still pirating because they wanted it in Japanese and said they couldn't afford $1.99. Instead of paying for an episode or 2 to see if it was something they would like and buy the episodes legally they continued to pirate simply because they could. Also it would have been more work for them. For any of you who are anime fans you all know anime fans will come up with some of the stupidest reasons to defend their pirating . If this bill actually passes the only good thing I could see coming from it is the look those dumbasses face when all their favorite naruto torrent sites are taken down and they are freaking out because they are too cheap to pay for a crunchy roll membership lol.

If you got a list of 2 million eligible voters to sign a petition saying this issue is important to their voting decision, you would see canidates start talking about this issue. By no means vote based soley on one topic, but let definately read into who is supporting what. - People always forget, the goverment is powerful. There is greed, corruption and all that. But the fact remains, politicians are interested in one thing: Getting elected. If they know it will get them massive votes, they will cater to people. We have all just become complacient, and forgotten that in the end, we do have the power. We just have to use it.

Awesome, so now that its a cause everyone likes, and anonymous are "fine to attack the esa", etc. You can't call a group "terrorist" one minute cause they hack your PSN then the next ask them to attack a person/company you don't like. Seriously, although I disagree with a lot of anons tactics/ideals, I believe the fact that there are "cyber-freedom-fighters" is a good thing. As long as the people (in some way) retain the ability to make the government believe we will not let them control us, we will be okay. More people need to get out and vote to let people know they don't support this kind of BS.

Theres nothing like china style censorship to make you feel at home in the land of warm apple pie. [/sarcasm] Even sony MS nintendo and EA have pulled their support of this bill! I mean if sony donest support it, you know its gotta be bad!

@Shadow_Fire41 I don't watch NFL but if I had to guess I'd say they don't like sites that stream the games or sites that update with score values real time. I have friends who go on their phone to see what the score is without bothering to watch the game. NFL wants to sell ads and they honestly think everyone should take the time out of their day to sit through a game or pay the high ticket prices to go watch it. @vader501st How much bribe money you say? Zero. [url=<< LINK REMOVED >>]Right here, friend.[/url] This is where you'll see the completely innocent, altruistic "donations" they've received. Not bribe, no. These people aren't corrupt at all. []sarcasm Tell you something though. I don't care how much campaign money my constituent received to sell me his vote (spearheaded SOPA in the first place), I'm not voting for his punk ass. @tachsniper responded to you first and brought up exactly who I'm referring to in this post. @renegade_magnum understand a pages long document with thousands of words in it? Naw. They understand short slips of green paper with zeroes on it. That's it.

@GetDaved The messed up part is the major corps STILL hate Netflix, Hulu et al because they feel like they're not getting paid enough for the content. Say I have a hypothetical daughter that likes Glee. It'll air on Fox, but it won't show up on Hulu for a week. Or if I have a niece that likes iCarly, she can only watch the first two seasons on Netflix and the show has lasted far beyond two seasons. Then on top of these two hypothetical scenarios you have my very real mother who peruses through Netflix to find that half the movies she wants to see aren't available, and this is because these corporate curmudgeons refuse to adapt to the changing media landscape and allow Netflix, Hulu whatever to host content. Do you honestly believe that people would go through the trouble of torrenting a Glee or an iCarly episode if they could just conveniently pay Netflix $10 a month, then open Netflix and call up what it is they want to see? Then you have these high cable bills where you're paying $80 a month and you don't watch 97% of the channels or even 70% of what airs on the channels you watch because they've turned to crap (see: G4, and how only a half hour of it is actually dedicated in some way to video games), and then you STILL have to pay an exorbitant amount on top of that to get stations you want to see---this is where I stop talking because otherwise I'm launching into a rant. To be on topic, with video games, you have things like companies increasingly trying to nickel and dime you by walling offline content behind an online pass and expecting you to just roll over and take it.

The easiest thing to do in life is blame others, SOPA is exactly this, nothing more than a giant way to blame others about corporation problems, problems that themselves created, problems that if they had a little more conscience of their actions it could be avoided. I personally don't think piracy a problem at all, the most successful: movies, series, games, manga's and anime's are the most pirated as well, the ones who sells most are the most pirated. And one more, ESA is saying that lots of sites profit from pirated games, when I need information about a game, I search everything including pirate sites, something that is hard to find is site charging money for those downloads, something eay to find in those sites are people(including moderators) saying things lik "If you like then buy original, if not then delete it", "If you don't obtain the original 24h delete it otherwise is theft" they found a few sites that charge, and now they blame on all others.

@Isw3638 Because it's never been about piracy, friend. I know it has 'piracy' in the name, but it's not about piracy at all. It's about controlling media through censorship in a way that proves to be more financially advantageous to the corporations that support the bill. In other words, it's about money. Always is. Something you expect from corporations, but something we all would like to think should not be the case for the government. Who cares about the people who voted for you, when your pockets are being lined by corporations that lobby for you? Didn't you find it curious how the supporters of SOPA claim to be "Protecting IP" and yet the supporters of the bill are all BIG corporations? Not indie developers or artists trying to break into the business by posting on YouTube, etc? It shouldn't be "Protect IP", they should call it what it really is: "Protect Big Business".

@parrot_of_adun I know what you mean, brother. Funny how these idiots in Congress, who are, for all intents and purposes, incapable of even understanding WHAT SOPA ACTUALLY DOES and what its consequences could mean (and I'm not exaggerating or speculating here, watch the proceedings that are streamed, where some of them OUTRIGHT admit that they have NO idea what parts of the bill actually mean) are actually in charge of passing a bill they have no true grasp of---pr*cks.