Some interesting news has come along the wire today. The ESA has officially come out in support for SOPA. I received an email stating as such today and shortly afterward, everyone else is reporting on it too. Here is the entirety of its response:
As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection, and do not believe the two are mutually exclusive. Rogue websites – those singularly devoted to profiting from their blatant illegal piracy – restrict demand for legitimate video game products and services, thereby costing jobs. Our industry needs effective remedies to address this specific problem, and we support the House and Senate proposals to achieve this objective. We are mindful of concerns raised about a negative impact on innovation. We look forward to working with the House and Senate, and all interested parties, to find the right balance and define useful remedies to combat willful wrongdoers that do not impede lawful product and business model innovation.
This is bad news, although not something I really didn’t see coming. What this means now is that every game company that the ESA represents now supports SOPA by proxy. This is bad. This means that even though Sony, Nintendo, EA etc have not come out specifically on SOPA, they are still considered in favor of this horrible legislation because they are members of the ESA. Even though EA claims to have never taken a position on SOPA it still supports SOPA by proxy.
What needs to happen now is for every gamer, every game developer and really anyone, to write these member companies and the ESA and demand they stop supporting SOPA. no more beating around the bush by these companies. We need to demand answers. If you want some pointers on contacting these companies, you should check out some great advice from Mommy’s Best Games or over at Destructoid.
On a related note, the Entertainment Merchants Association has contacted me to reaffirm their support for PIPA in the Senate but have not taken a position on SOPA.
EMA has endorsed the PROTECT IP Act, for the reasons stated in our news release. However, we have not taken a position on SOPA.
This is almost as bad as supporting SOPA. SOPA has been out for several months now and any lobbying organization should have come to a conclusion about SOPA, especially if it has one on PIPA. I would recommend calling on the EMA and retailers it represents to oppose SOPA as well.
So there you have it. Two of the primary video game industry’s lobbyist organizations and their position on SOPA. I would hope that these companies would come to their senses and switch to opposition to SOPA and PIPA. Both pieces of legislation are bad news for the internet and even gamers. Why anyone would support them is beyond me.
