EA, Sony and Nintendo Withdraw SOPA Support, Sort Of

Sony, Nintendo and Electronic Arts have all withdrawn their support of SOPA, but the Entertainment Software Association is still hanging in.

The Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, is bad news. Bringing piracy to heel is a noble goal but imposing sweeping, arbitrary laws that can force websites offline with almost no judicial oversight isn't the way to go about it. The average guy on the internet may not care much one way or the other [probably because he's not even aware of what's going on] but some backlash is beginning to be felt: Go Daddy dropped its support for SOPA a couple of weeks ago following calls for a boycott of its services and now Sony, Nintendo and Electronic Arts have all followed suit - sort of.

Sony Electronics, Nintendo and Elecronic Arts, which had previously thrown their weight behind the proposed legislation, are now all notably absent from the most recent list of SOPA supporters. Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Nashville remain on the list, which is unfortunate, but of greater concern is the continued presence of the Entertainment Software Association, the industry association which counts among its members Sony, Nintendo and EA. The support is still there, in other words, less direct and better camouflaged but still very much a part of the process pushing for the implementation of SOPA.

As long as the ESA remains onboard, the pro-SOPA side can claim that the videogame industry as a whole - including Sony, Nintendo and EA - are firmly behind the initiative. And that may very well be the case; this could very well be nothing more than an attempt to score some points with the rabble while letting its industry association do the dirty work. Unless and until the ESA itself steps back from the affair, hopefully with an appropriate level of fanfare, pulling their names off that list doesn't add up to much in my book.

Source: Destructoid

Source: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115005-EA-Sony-and-Nintendo-Withdraw-SOPA-Support-Sort-Of?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news

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