SOPA is an extremely hot-button issue on the internet right now, with politicians, companies, websites, and individuals coming out for and against this controversial piece of US legislation. It's so important that many game studios have broken the unwritten rule of not commenting on politics to state their positions on the matter.
Riot Games is one of these studios that have piped up to oppose the bill, as CEO Brandon Beck posted a lengthy reasoning as to why SOPA would harm League of Legends specifically, and he asked players to help stop it from being passed into law. "While we do support efforts to prevent online piracy, the current form of this legislation comes at far too high a cost for us, our players, and online communities across the internet," Beck writes, citing examples as to how the game could be taken offline and the community dismantled if the SOPA were wielded against LoL.
Interestingly enough, Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, who is himself a League of Legends player, replied to Beck in support of Riot Games' stance: "I'm particularly concerned that SOPA might stifle the kind of innovation that brings us games we love, such as LoL. The bill makes it far too easy for angry competitors to sue good law abiding companies out of existence." Polis says that he is drafting an alternate piece of legislation to combat internet piracy without SOPA's potential abuse.
[Update: If you'd like to encourage other companies to blockade SOPA, you might be interested in the online petition aimed squarely at Electronic Arts.]
Reader Comments (26)
Posted: Jan 11th 2012 9:15PM Faction 3 said
%$^&ing EA...buch of %$^&suckers...
Never again will I purchase ANYTHING branded by them. I remeber back in the early days when EA was just another average publisher, with games like "Mutant Leage Football"...
Now they have the potential vote to completely destroy our god-given freedom.
Never again will I purchase ANYTHING branded by them. I remeber back in the early days when EA was just another average publisher, with games like "Mutant Leage Football"...
Now they have the potential vote to completely destroy our god-given freedom.
Posted: Jan 11th 2012 10:43PM Hikoro said
If you make art, would you want everyone on the world to see it?
Or just the people who can afford the price that you give to it?
Games should be treated as art, for everyone to enjoy and not as means to make profit.
As such if there were no publishers and only developers , you would see more quality.
"But the developers need money to survive!" No, they simply need food , air and water.
But in order for that to happen , the world needs to change it's values.
No more consuming needless goods, gaining status, and ego.
Why do you want to feel better than others?
I could talk about this more, but you can find more of this if you search the internet. (If it's still there..:P )
Or just the people who can afford the price that you give to it?
Games should be treated as art, for everyone to enjoy and not as means to make profit.
As such if there were no publishers and only developers , you would see more quality.
"But the developers need money to survive!" No, they simply need food , air and water.
But in order for that to happen , the world needs to change it's values.
No more consuming needless goods, gaining status, and ego.
Why do you want to feel better than others?
I could talk about this more, but you can find more of this if you search the internet. (If it's still there..:P )
Posted: Jan 12th 2012 10:01AM fallwind said
@Hikoro "Games should be treated as art, for everyone to enjoy and not as means to make profit. "
great... are you going to buy my family's food from now on? pay our heating bills? If games don't make money, I don't get paid to make them, if I don't get paid then I'm going to have to do something else to pay the bills... and your games wont get made.
I'm against SOPA and PIPA because they threaten my livelihood. But the "everything should be free, man!" line does as well. There is a hell of a lot of middle ground between the two extremes that no one wants to discuss, because if you aren't at one end or the other you are somehow a "flip-flopper" or "uninformed" or some other BS.
Reply
great... are you going to buy my family's food from now on? pay our heating bills? If games don't make money, I don't get paid to make them, if I don't get paid then I'm going to have to do something else to pay the bills... and your games wont get made.
I'm against SOPA and PIPA because they threaten my livelihood. But the "everything should be free, man!" line does as well. There is a hell of a lot of middle ground between the two extremes that no one wants to discuss, because if you aren't at one end or the other you are somehow a "flip-flopper" or "uninformed" or some other BS.
Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:57AM h4ngedm4n said
Props to Riot Games for joining the group against SOPA. I think it is pretty cool that a congressman replied in support to Beck's letter.
I live in California and we are pretty much divided over this. Basically, we have 2 major industries: computer technology (Silicon Valley) and entertainment (Hollywood). Support is pretty much divided along those lines.
It is all great irony, and full circle considering Hollywood itself was formed by a bunch of "independents" to dodge Edison's movie patents at the time (film enthusiasts already know this, thought I might share in case some people here don't know).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Patents_Company
I live in California and we are pretty much divided over this. Basically, we have 2 major industries: computer technology (Silicon Valley) and entertainment (Hollywood). Support is pretty much divided along those lines.
It is all great irony, and full circle considering Hollywood itself was formed by a bunch of "independents" to dodge Edison's movie patents at the time (film enthusiasts already know this, thought I might share in case some people here don't know).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Patents_Company
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