The Entertainment Software Association has dropped its support of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) after originally throwing its support behind the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. The ESA had been coming under increasing pressure from both the game development industry and from individual gamers. Many had threatened to boycott the ESA's flagship convention, E3.

"From the beginning, ESA has been committed to the passage of balanced legislation to address the illegal theft of intellectual property found on foreign rogue sites," the group said in a statement. "Although the need to address this pervasive threat to our industry's creative investment remains, concerns have been expressed about unintended consequences stemming from the current legislative proposals. Accordingly, we call upon Congress, the Obama Administration, and stakeholders to refocus their energies on producing a solution that effectively balances both creative and technology interests. As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection and are committed to working with all parties to encourage a balanced solution."

In related news, after losing critical support from Congressional members, both the SOPA and PIPA bills have been shelved for the time being. Not only did the legislation lose support of many rank and file Congressional members but the proposed laws saw their authors lose enthusiasm for passage of the controversial legislation. SOPA and PIPA were designed, at least ostensibly, to stop software piracy.

Source: Kotaku

These guys can bite me. They stuck it out thinking it would pass and, when it clearly wouldn't, they backpeddle and act like it was their idea in the first place. PR spins in hopes of salvaging a reputation after everyone and their mother spits on them for being so stupid in the first place. Worst kind of people.

Well well it does really seem that money talks,would ESA have really pulled out if there was not such a mass reaction and calls from Red 5 and others to boycott E3,I think this confirms how America is firstly slave to money,and your freedom is something the American people and your internet allies will fight for to quote Red 5 FUCK SOPA !!!

after the bills get called out of the senate/house they call off their support, ye let them burn, good riddance.

\o/ \o/ \o/

Some good news!

And yet the FBI still shuts down and arrests Megaupload.com, Asian based company owned by a Dutchman with New Zealand citizenship...

Originally posted by Kabaal

And yet the FBI still shuts down and arrests Megaupload.com, Asian based company owned by a Dutchman with New Zealand citizenship...

The bill being shelved does not mean they can't close down websites.  They've always maintained the power to close down websites.  This one was done with support of the host country.

You gotta remember that ThePirateBay.ORG was taken down at some point by the Swedish government and cost them millions of dollars.  ThePirateBay.ORG is easily making a $100M a year.

To close down an internationally hosted website they need strong relations with the country.  America has never really had great relations with many people which is why it was harder for them to get closed down.

This is good news but this fight is never really going to be over. sopa will be back, except under another stupid acronym. Hopefully next time we will kick it square in the nuts as well.

Thats the thing with shelves, the item is always used somewhere down the line.

Great news. I am so glad I believe these two acts were a dangerous trend that cannot be supported.

Originally posted by troublmaker

Originally posted by Kabaal

And yet the FBI still shuts down and arrests Megaupload.com, Asian based company owned by a Dutchman with New Zealand citizenship...

The bill being shelved does not mean they can't close down websites.  They've always maintained the power to close down websites.  This one was done with support of the host country.

You gotta remember that ThePirateBay.ORG was taken down at some point by the Swedish government and cost them millions of dollars.  ThePirateBay.ORG is easily making a $100M a year.

To close down an internationally hosted website they need strong relations with the country.  America has never really had great relations with many people which is why it was harder for them to get closed down.

They have no right to arrest a citizen of another country.

Originally posted by nerovipus32

Originally posted by troublmaker

Originally posted by Kabaal

And yet the FBI still shuts down and arrests Megaupload.com, Asian based company owned by a Dutchman with New Zealand citizenship...

The bill being shelved does not mean they can't close down websites.  They've always maintained the power to close down websites.  This one was done with support of the host country.

You gotta remember that ThePirateBay.ORG was taken down at some point by the Swedish government and cost them millions of dollars.  ThePirateBay.ORG is easily making a $100M a year.

To close down an internationally hosted website they need strong relations with the country.  America has never really had great relations with many people which is why it was harder for them to get closed down.

They have no right to arrest a citizen of another country.

 

Of course they do. Law enforcement from other countries frequently work together toward a common goal. Both PirayeBay and MegaUpload never went down by US efforts alone, that was a combination of work between two or more governments that absolutely were in their authority to deal with criminal activity. 

High-Five to everyone who helped make this possible.

Just make sure you don't forget the people who had the audacity to even propse something so outrageous in the first place, make sure that representitives remain on your S--- list for as long as they draw breath.

We are the 99% ;)

NO one wanted SOPA.

We pay for your software, and your games imagine a day where Thousands of people refuse to buy your new game release for some reason the profit loss.

And we the people will win against bills like SOPA, and Internet Censorship.

I also do Not Agree with What happend to Mega Upload, it was not an illegal filing sharing service I used it myself, but it was raided by the FBI, check out the news article.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199528-megaupload-founders-homes-raided-5m-in-luxury-cars-seized

It appears that even the FBI doesn't need SOPA passed to do anything like this, now it was not the company's responsibility that people uploaded copyrighted content, and there is no way to control what people uploaded. I am sure that under the DMCA they would remove anything that was copyrighted they knew about from their service, but imagine this. If I for example took a copyrighted game and uploaded it once, then 50 other people upload it on different links the same service, and as a result there are 50 pirated copy's then there needs to be 50 DMCA claims for each link, or one with all links to that content, otherwise how are they supposed to know when a file is encrypted with win rar, and uploaded what is legal and what isn't this was just wrong.

Next Big Thing to Appeal, and fight for healthcare.

ACORN

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=HcBaSP31Be8&vg=medium

    Originally posted by nerovipus32

    They have no right to arrest a citizen of another country.



Actually, it's a pretty well known fact that the US has what amounts to a one way extradition treaty with most of the rest of the world. They demand someone, they get him. Doesn't work the other way around though. It's next to impossible to get an American extradited to any other country for any crime. Justice, it seems, only matters when it's in America's favour.

Originally posted by Renoaku

We are the 99% ;)

NO one wanted SOPA.

We pay for your software, and your games imagine a day where Thousands of people refuse to buy your new game release for some reason the profit loss.

And we the people will win against bills like SOPA, and Internet Censorship.

I also do Not Agree with What happend to Mega Upload, it was not an illegal filing sharing service I used it myself, but it was raided by the FBI, check out the news article.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199528-megaupload-founders-homes-raided-5m-in-luxury-cars-seized

It appears that even the FBI doesn't need SOPA passed to do anything like this, now it was not the company's responsibility that people uploaded copyrighted content, and there is no way to control what people uploaded. I am sure that under the DMCA they would remove anything that was copyrighted they knew about from their service, but imagine this. If I for example took a copyrighted game and uploaded it once, then 50 other people upload it on different links the same service, and as a result there are 50 pirated copy's then there needs to be 50 DMCA claims for each link, or one with all links to that content, otherwise how are they supposed to know when a file is encrypted with win rar, and uploaded what is legal and what isn't this was just wrong.

Next Big Thing to Appeal, and fight for healthcare.

ACORN

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=HcBaSP31Be8&vg=medium

Well they have been building a case against Kim Schmitz for over 5 years, and this isn't first time Kim has been court over megaupload's existence. My best bet is the case won't have enough grounds again. Mainly everything started to snowball late october due to the Megaupload song and endorsement. It's mostly a UMG vs. Megaupload pissing contest. The indictment if you wish to see how much grounds they don't have in court.

As for your video on H.R. 3200, it's mostly republican sensationalist crap, here are the actual high lights of the bill. You should take the time to read up on it for yourself, instead of accepting what someone else says. This line: "HR 3200 states that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the proposed taxpayer-funded affordable premium credits." should be more than enough to discredit that video, as the narrator attempts to mislead people into thinking that they do have access to coverage and that we (The Taxpayers) would be paying for it. Then again you should have questioned the integrity of person attempting to speak about poltics when their youtube handle is "1NationUnder1God3in1".

If you still have to fight for healthcare how is America different from any other 3rd world country? lol

Stupid ESA, they only backed out when SOPA was about to be shelved.

You know they will be back supporting it again when that law comes back.

Companies should just keep boycotting E3, teach em a lesson.

I find it hard to believe that they thought these bills would pass. It makes me wonder what they were doing that they didn't want us looking at while we focused all our attention on SOPA and PIPA. Another part of me believes that they really were that dumb. The Rep. from my state is still that dumb and still vows to pass the bill. I don't care if he's running against a mop, I'm not voting for him.