Major game publishers on board with Protect IP/SOPA

This is quite possibly one of the most disappointing things I've seen in a while. While I understand that they want to cut down on Piracy, the bill itself is pretty much a law that will legalize blacklisting of sites with copyrighted material, no matter how trivial or legitimate, masquerading as a Piracy bill. Hell, the main sponsor of the bill has no idea how the technical parts of the bill works!

Worse, they include publishers that we have trusted for years, such as Nintendo, Capcom, Sony, Microsoft, and several more among the 31 publishers behind the bill. They are probably clueless of the adverse effects of the bill, and only see the "Stop Piracy" bullshit at face value. Supporting the bill when many of their customers do not will only hurt them in the long run.

If you can contact them, tell them the truth.

Et tu, Nintendo?

Well, shit.

I have a feeling they don't quite understand the full ramifications of the bill. To be honest I don't think anyone does. We know it will screw up the net but I don't think most of us can imagine what a massive impact this will have on just about every facet of our lives.

I also have to ask, this list says Nintendo, Sega, etc. of America. Now does that mean the Japanese ones don't care or did they just not pledge support because it's not a law that affects their country?

edited 19th Nov '11 10:48:42 AM by Kostya

The Japanese wouldn't care. Why would they? It's not their country.

I'm disappointed in the companies, but it is kind of to be expected. I'd say it's likely they're just looking at the superficial "this'll totally stop online piracy forever!" title and not realizing that nope, this is actually going to boot all user-generated material off the internet forever in the US. The bill's language is ridiculously bad.

If you want to stop it, I'm not sure I'd bother trying to reach the companies — unless you can talk to Reggie himself and explain with a Powerpoint what a bad idea this bill is, you're not going to change anything. It'd be much more meaningful to call your House Representative or Senator and let them know you're against this bill. They do think about the number of calls they're getting and will take that into account when they vote on it.

edited 19th Nov '11 10:56:57 AM by WildKnight

I guess the latter.

edited 19th Nov '11 10:54:27 AM by Bookyangel2438

Why the "Har, har, the Japanese don't care cause it's not their country" attitude? Did you not remember that they have business interests over here too? Hell, Nintendo makes most of its money overseas and the US is a big market.

I don't support this bill, but I can see why a Japanese company with North American subsidiaries would think it protects their interests in a market they see as vulnerable.

edited 19th Nov '11 11:11:31 AM by Rebochan

Ubisoft, why the fuck am I not surprised at all? Activision, now why AM I surprised they're not in bed with the devil?

Oh well, someone really should tell them what they're signing, firebombs are only optional at this stage.

...Ah, crap. Sorry, I misunderstood. For some reason I thought Kostya meant the general Japanese public, even though that's not at all what he even implied. =/ Still, I can't imagine the Japanese HQ would need to say anything that wouldn't reiterate what their American branches already stated.

My main point still stands: call your representative/senator. They have to listen, they're working for you.

@NSBL: Probably because Activision knows the kind of people who play Call Of Duty, and the thought of being unable to sell more copies when people can't put up video on You Tube probably made them think.

Et tu, Nintendo! Et tu, Sony! Et tu, Micro- No wait! That's not really a surprise for me...

I'm still going to buy their games.

^Wouldn't you want to, you know, not support them and send the message that supporting this crap is a stupid idea?

What do you suggest Rocket Dude? Just dropping video games entirely?

While this is a bad idea, my drive for games to play and complete compels me to buy at least Nintendo's games. I won't let my passion for games get destroyed by something like this you know.

edited 19th Nov '11 12:04:38 PM by Folt

I blame Nintendo for being utterly clueless in online affairs (If there console networking has anything to go by)

@Zeromaeus: No, I support not-idiotic methods. If it comes to that, I'll just jump ship and find something else.

Not that I have to, since I use Steam.

But where would that leave Sony and Microsoft?

After Sony's actions with Geohotz and Microsofts policies in general I am not surprised they support this bill.

I don't have to support someone to buy their games.

With Nintendo I'm not suprised since the ds has lost a ton of money due to the R4 ds cards. (if you don't know these are cards that could hold THE ENTIRE DS library.) And the wii has been modded to get access to wii shop games. Not to mention that there's an emulator for every Nintendo system, (except the 3ds but its probably being developed.) while I don't support this bill, Its just expected that since Nintendo has been buttfucked by piracy for years that they would do anything to stop piracy.

@Rocket - well, that makes sense. You let people put the gameplay from your copyrighted title on the interwebs, let them show off some crazy shit, people see that, people buy game, KAAAAA-CHING! Profit.

To not see it, well, that's grade-A mental retardation.

Pretty much that. Speaking for myself, I know I wouldn't have given [PROTOTYPE] a second look if I hadn't seen the videos of people performing karate kicks on helicopters (what the fuck else do you want!?), jumping off of skyscrapers and powerbombing hordes of zombies, and other crazy shit.

While the language of the bill is about as airtight as a screen door, I can't imagine it would last very long, were it to actually get passed. The more dramatic its effect on the Internet turns out to be, the harder the inevitable backlash, and the more public opinion will turn in favor of the law's unintentional targets. Younger sites may not have the financial muscle to successfully take the issue to court, but quite a few older ones do.

"Wikimedia Foundation [i]et al[/i] v. United States"...

edited 19th Nov '11 5:23:02 PM by Twilitbeing

I thought about boycotting those companies's games through Black Friday and the rest of December, but then I remembered buying them second-hand doesn't support the company...