SOPA
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ESA members asked individually about SOPA, some respond
Rock, Paper, Shotgun collaborated in obtaining responses. The Entertainment Software Association's support of the "Stop Online Piracy Act" has led us to ask every member of the video game industry's lobbying and political group to publicly declare its stance on the bill. The ESA's continued support means every member, by proxy, is a supporter of the bill. Some companies have pulled their logos from supporting SOPA documentation to dodge ire, while others are hiding behind rhetoric, as you'll see below. Joystiq contacted every member of the ESA and requested a declarative statement on SOPA. After the break we've listed the responses we've received, along with others we found. We continue to seek clarity on this issue from every member of the ESA. This will become the page we update as we receive responses and clear declarative statements, so feel free to bookmark. (Joystiq does not support SOPA, nor does our parent company.)
ESA member Epic Games speaks out against SOPA [Update: So do 38 Studios and Trion]
Epic Games, developer of the Gears of War series and member of the Entertainment Software Association, last night came out against the proposed "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA). "We do not support the current version of SOPA," Epic Games senior PR manager Dana Cowley wrote in a public letter posted to the North Carolina company's forums. "We are members of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a trade organization that is working with legislators to refine the bill," she said, referring to the ESA's letter of support for the proposed legislation released earlier this week. She added, "Epic Games supports efforts that would stop overseas websites profiting from pirating our games, but we have to do that in a way that's compatible with freedom of speech and due process of law." Epic is the first member of the ESA - the political lobbying arm of the game industry - to speak out against SOPA, but we suspect it won't be the last. We've dropped a list of remaining ESA members after the break who have yet to rescind support for the proposed legislation. Update: 38 Studios is also against SOPA, writing on its Facebook wall, "Based on the SOPA bill's current structure, 38 Studios believes that the bill requires further restructuring and review to ensure it both preserves rights and protects intellectual properties. Please know that we take this issue very seriously," as spotted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Trion also has come out against the proposed legislation, writing on its forums, "We definitely do not support SOPA. We'll be calling the ESA about this after the holiday weekend."
Sinde Law brings SOPA-like restrictions to Spain
The Spanish government has passed legislation aimed at cracking down on websites illegally sharing digital content. Called the Sinde Law, it will create a new government commission that Spanish right holders can engage when they feel that a site is illegally distributing their content. After an alleged infraction, the commission examines the complaint and determines if, under the new statute, legal action is necessary. Should a site be found in violation, the case is passed to a judge and the decision is made either to shutter the offending website, take action against the site's service provider or dismiss the complaint altogether. The BBC reports that the entire process, from first report to final decision, should take no more than ten days. Open internet activists have voiced concerns about the breadth and implications of the law. United States residents will recognize many of the arguments for and against the Sinde Law in light of the SOPA Act (Stop Online Piracy Act) debate that's been raging here in the United States for several months.
ESA stands behind proposed SOPA legislation, issues statement
Last week, it appeared as though various game developers and publishers had pulled support for the proposed "Stop Online Piracy Act" - a piece of legislation that would empower content owners to effectively shut down internet sites over copyright infringement claims. The Entertainment Software Association, however, was still listed as a supporter, meaning that the long list of game companies belonging to the ESA supported it by proxy. That's pretty much every major game company you can think of, with the exception of Activision. The ESA is still a SOPA supporter, and today the game industry's lobbying group issued a statement to Joystiq regarding its support of the controversial bill. It reads as follows: "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." As we've previously stated, Joystiq does not support SOPA, nor does our parent company. Additionally, Serious Sam: Double D dev Mommy's Best Games is currently calling on ESA members to speak out against the proposed bill.
Hackers planning homespun anti-censorship satellite internet
SOPA is making ordinary, decent internet users mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore. Hacker attendees of Berlin's Chaos Communication Congress are cooking up a plan to launch a series of homemade satellites as the backbone of an "uncensorable (sic) internet in space." Like all good ideas, there's a few hurdles to overcome first: objects in lower-Earth orbit circle the earth every 90 minutes, useless for a broadband satellite that needs to remain geostationary. Instead, a terrestrial network of base stations will have to be installed in order to remain in constant contact as it spins past, at the cost of €100 ($130) per unit. The conference also stated a desire to get an amateur astronaut onto the moon within 23 years, which we'd love to see, assuming there's still a rocket fuel store on eBay.
Mommy's Best Games asks ESA members to renounce SOPA
You know how we feel about the anti-piracy/pro-censorship bill SOPA (we still think it's borderline evil) but now another developer is speaking out against it, and urging others to do so as well. Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games (Serious Sam: Double D) wrote a blog post asking the Entertainment Software Association to drop its continued support of the bill. "If you work at one of these companies," Fouts said to ESA members, "talk to your boss and get them talking to the ESA! Ask what your company's stance is!" He also wrote to gamers suggesting we, as people being represented by the ESA, should ask the association to drop SOPA support. In addition to this open letter, Fouts has been tweeting at every ESA member with the message, "Hi, checking in with all on the ESA list. Does your company support SOPA? If not, could you ask the ESA to drop support? Thx!"
Report: Anonymous after Sony execs, not PSN
PlayStation Lifestyle reports that Anonymous has clarified its position regarding attacks on Sony over the abhorrent SOPA law -- keeping in mind that Anonymous isn't a strongly cohesive "group," and so it's not entirely possible to ascribe a single point of view to it. The opening message on the group's "#OpSony" IRC room was reportedly changed to "NO SOPA! NO ATTACK ON PSN!" In an area for planning "ops," the group suggested that "Doxing [posting personal documents] will occur on Sony executives." Other avenues of attack included hacking Sony websites to place anti-SOPA material. This attitude is consistent with statements previously attributed to the group, expressing a desire not to inconvenience Sony customers while carrying out protests against Sony.
Anonymous not targeting Sony customers in OpSony
Internet superhero/supervillain organization Anonymous is at it again, and this time it's leading the charge against internet censorship act SOPA. At the moment, Sony stands in favor of SOPA, and Anonymous does not plan on letting that fly. Considering the fact that this is the group responsible for bringing down PSN last year, many gamers have raised concerns over what Anonymous' latest plan could mean for them. Normal gamers can breathe easily, though, as Anonymous seems to have deemed PSN untouchable. The group also mentioned that it would not be releasing the private information of Sony customers, but some Sony employee information -- including names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc. -- has already been posted online. So there's that, we guess. We're glad that someone is standing up to SOPA, but this could get ugly very quickly. What do you think of Anonymous' OpSony?
SOPA: Who's in and who's out?
By now we're sure you're aware that SOPA is more than just a tomato-based noodle soup. The Stop Online Piracy Act's been stirring controversy with its intentions, and it'll most likely continue in this path until we hear a final decision. Go Daddy wasn't shy -- before retracting -- about its support for the bill, and things have changed drastically since we first heard some of the "top dogs" express their feelings. But who else is behind it, who's got your back, and who's had a change of heart? The answers await you after the break.
Nintendo, EA and Sony also rescind SOPA support
Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Sony Electronics have apparently followed the example of Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance, and have removed their corporate monikers from the list of supporters for the increasingly unpopular Stop Online Piracy Act. None of the three companies have commented on why they reversed their position on the controversial bill, but we imagine its because endorsing it makes the internet pretty angry with you. When asked, EA corporate told Joystiq this afternoon, "EA never expressed a position for or against SOPA." Sony and Nintendo had yet to respond as of publishing. Note that not all of Sony's miscellaneous branches have rescinded their support, as Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Nashville still appear on the list. Also, the Entertainment Software Association is still shown as a supporter -- an organization which the aforementioned publishers (among others) belong to. Whether the group will remain on an endorsement list which exactly zero of its members appear on remains to be seen.
Anonymous declares war on Sony over SOPA support
Sony may once again be the target of hacking attacks, but at least this time the company has a little heads-up in advance. The secretive organization of hackers known as Anonymous released a video declaring its intent to strike at Sony over Sony's support of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The video contains your usual vague proclamations of doom and ego-boosting statements, although with Anonymous' past activity, it will be hard to ignore the threat. The collective of hackers were thought to be at least partially responsible for the attack on Sony earlier this year that forced the company to take its network and games offline. SOPA is a proposed U.S. bill that would allow law enforcement to combat pirated digital goods by shutting down websites and blocking payments to site owners. While the bill is supported by Hollywood, the music industry, and some major game companies, SOPA opposers worry that the bill will infringe on First Amendment rights and permanently harm the internet. You can watch the Anonymous declaration after the jump.
Anonymous is apparently gearing up to shut Sony down again
The amorphous hacker collective known as "Anonymous" (or entities claiming to be, as it were) has once more announced its intentions to attack electronics manufacturer "Sony Company and Associates." Unlike the previous attack, which crippled Sony's PlayStation Network service during several months in the first half of 2011 and for which the group is suspected of involvement, this time the group pins its reasoning to Sony's support of the Stop Online Piracy Act ("SOPA"). In a video missive uploaded to YouTube, the group declares its intentions to "destroy your network," presumably referencing the aforementioned PlayStation Network employed by Sony's game consoles. It also names several famous targets it plans on going after, from Justin Bieber to Taylor Swift. Hasn't Taylor Swift been through enough, folks? No timing is given for the purported attack, but we're putting our money on "pretty soon," if at all. Curiously, Anonymous only picks Sony for its scorn, though a variety of other companies across the game industry (including Sony's domestic competitor, Nintendo) have signed on in support of SOPA. Joystiq, as you might imagine, has not, and neither has our parent company. Update: This post originally listed Microsoft as a SOPA supporter, which is no longer the case. [Thanks, Doc]
Go Daddy pulls support for SOPA amidst backlash, too late to satisfy Wikipedia
It looks like the prospect of widespread boycott was more than Go Daddy was willing to face as a result of its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act -- the domain name registrar announced today that it has officially withdrawn its support for the controversial bill. In a statement, the company said that "fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation - but we can clearly do better," adding that it will support new legislation "when and if the Internet community supports it." That move proved to be too late for a number of prominent Go Daddy customers, however, including Wikipedia, which coincidentally announced today that it will be moving all of its domain names away from Go Daddy due to its stance on SOPA. Go Daddy's full announcement is after the break.
SOPA hearing delayed until the new year as petition signatures top 25k
Hearings in the US House of Representatives to finish markup on the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) were slated to resume tomorrow, but it looks like things will remain at a standstill until next year. The holiday break has now pushed the committee hearing back to a yet-to-be-rescheduled date, with nothing more specific than "early next year" being promised at the moment. That news comes as a Whitehouse.gov petition asking President Obama to veto the bill and any future ones like it passed its goal of 25,000 signatures, well ahead of the January 17th deadline (as of this writing, the count stands around 29,000).
SOPA hearings underway, tech policy wonks can stream it live
Like any good tech geek you're probably at least interested in, if not a little concerned by SOPA -- the Stop Online Piracy Act. Well, today is its day in front of the House Judiciary committee. While this is hardly the last stop on the road towards becoming a law for the bill it is one that will be crucial in deciding its fate. Will it be toothless and unenforceable? Simply die in committee? Or will this become a powerful new tool in the battle against piracy? If you're the really wonky type hit up the source link to watch a live stream of the debate.[Thanks, Tyler]
Federal domain seizure raises new concerns over online censorship
It's been a little more than a year since the US government began seizing domains of music blogs, torrent meta-trackers and sports streaming sites. The copyright infringement investigation, led by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, quickly raised eyebrows among many free speech and civil rights advocates, fueling a handful of legal challenges. Few are more compelling, or frightening than a case involving Dajaz1.com. As TechDirt reports, the popular hip-hop blog has been at the epicenter of a sinuous and seemingly dystopian dispute with the feds -- one that underscores the heightening controversy surrounding federal web regulation, and blurs the constitutional divide between free speech and intellectual property protection. Dajaz1 was initially seized under the 2008 Pro IP Act, on the strength of an affidavit that cited several published songs as evidence of copyright infringement. As it turns out, ,any of these songs were actually provided by their copyright holders themselves, but that didn't stop the government from seizing the URL anyway, and plastering a warning all over its homepage. Typically, this kind of action would be the first phase of a two-step process. Once a property is seized, US law dictates that the government has 60 days to notify its owner, who can then choose to file a request for its return. If the suspect chooses to file this request within a 35-day window, the feds must then undertake a so-called forfeiture process within 90 days. Failure to do so would require the government to return the property to its rightful owner. But that's not exactly how things played out in the case of Dajaz1. For more details on the saga, head past the break.
Business Software Alliance speaks out against SOPA
The Business Software Alliance, a trade organization for the IT industry, has changed its tune regarding the controversial and terrible Stop Online Piracy Act. Though it issued a press release in October "commending" House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith for introducing the bill, BSA CEO Robert Holleyman wrote in a blog post this week that the BSA does not support the bill as it is. SOPA will have to "balance key innovation, privacy and security considerations with the need to thwart the threat rogue websites pose" before the BSA, which counts Microsoft and Apple among its members, will officially endorse it. Holleyman said that "definitions of who can be the subject of legal actions and what remedies are imposed must be tightened and narrowed. Due process, free speech, and privacy are rights cannot be compromised." Furthermore, "BSA has long stood against filtering or monitoring the Internet," which is a focus of SOPA. It's nice to see some major software companies take the right stance with regards to widespread censorship -- at least through their trade organization.
Apple and Microsoft join Nintendo et al in support of Internet-censorship bill
Initially we though Apple and Microsoft had come out in support of sopaipillas, the delicious and flaky fried pastry treat served in parts of Central and South America, as well as the North American Southwest. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that what they're actually supporting is the far less scrumptious SOPA, or "Stop Online Piracy Act" which Nintendo, EA and Sony have already put their weight behind. The supporting statement didn't come from Apple or Microsoft directly, but rather through the Business Software Alliance; a trade group that represents both Apple and Microsoft, as well as other tech giants such as Adobe, McAfee, Dell and Symantec. Meanwhile, Internet-technology companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga have taken a vocal anti-sopaipilla anti-SOPA stance, going so far as to purchase a full-page ad in the New York Times. We're pretty worried this bill is going to pass, truth be told, so we're going to take this opportunity to say everything we won't be able to say once Internet censorship becomes the norm. Okay, ready? Hey Internet, [REMOVED].
Nintendo, EA, Sony sponsor Internet censorship bill [update]
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is a bill currently in the US Congress, with the stated goal of curtailing copyright infringement, but with the actual effects of setting up a government firewall to block out unwanted sites, and giving the US jurisdiction over foreign sites that have anything to do with infringement of US copyright. It is repellent. A Reddit user discovered a document [PDF] hosted by the Global Intellectual IP Center ("Global"), from before the introduction of SOPA, urging Congress to enact such a measure. Among those corporate sponsors is Nintendo, who is demonstrably and justifiably upset about piracy, and committed to taking all the wrong steps to stop it. Other companies signing off in favor of this anti-"rogue site" legislation, in the interest of protecting their IP online include Sony -- Sony Electronics, Sony Music, and Sony Pictures, separately. EA is also listed, along with Rite Aid (what?) and Zippo (what?) Okay, so you already know how we feel about this thing. If you feel the same way, you can write or call Congress. November 16 saw concerted "Stop Censorship" efforts (Tumblr black-barred everyone's dashboard in protest, for example), but you can, of course, still contact your representatives. If you're outside of the US, uh, cross your fingers and hope you don't lose all the US-based visitors to your sites. [Image: Infographic from AmericanCensorship.org] Update: Added link to Reddit post. It was accidentally censored omitted! Update 2: It appears as though Apple, Microsoft, and a variety of other tech companies are supporting the bill as well via a lobby group, named "The Business Software Alliance."
Google, Facebook, Twitter and others speak out against the Stop Online Piracy Act
Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) which, depending on who you ask, is either a means to stop piracy and copyright infringement on so-called "rogue" websites, or the most serious threat of internet censorship that we've seen in some time. In the latter camp are some of the biggest internet companies around, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Zynga and AOL (full disclosure: Engadget's parent company), who today made their stance clear by taking out a full-page ad in The New York Times. The ad itself is a letter sent by the nine companies to Congress, which states that while they support the stated goals of the bill and the related Protect IP Act, they believe that, as written, the bills "would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites." The companies further went on to say that they believe the measures also "pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation's cybersecurity." While they didn't all sign onto the letter, those companies also also joined by a host of others who have spoken out against the legislation, including Foursquare and Tumblr. The sole witness against the proposed measures at today's hearing, however, was Google's copyright policy counsel, Katherine Oyama -- you can find her testimony on Google's Public Policy Blog linked below.
