With the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act both on on indefinitehold, the Entertainment Software Association has urged legislators to continue to work toward new alternatives to prevent online piracy.
Over the last few weeks, the ESA has stood its ground as a majorsupporter of the proposed legislation, and today the organization reaffirmed its commitment to stopping piracy in the games business, even if SOPA and PIPA aren't the right answer.
In its official statement, the group acknowledged it was aware of the growing criticisms against SOPA and PIPA, and encouraged the U.S. officials "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," the statement continued.
Since the ESA initially voiced its support for SOPA, some developers have publicly denounced the group, including Weapon of Choice developer Nathan Fouts and Firefall studio Red 5, the latter of which has gone as far as to withdraw from the ESA's E3 Expo and found League for Gamers, an online advocacy group dedicated to combating legislation that puts the internet at risk.
Other studios, such as Epic, Riot, Jagex, and more, have publicly voiced their opposition to SOPA and PIPA, claiming that the bills would fail to stop piracy, and could instead threaten online games, user-generated content, web communities, and more.
Currently, both SOPA and PIPA have been postponed, with proponents of each bill noting that they will remain on hold until Congress can come to a wider agreement on a solution.
The ESA has exactly zero credibility on this subject. They supported one of the worst pieces of legislation in the history of the information age. They were the second-last games-related organization to wake up and denounced it after it had already been defeated (only the IGDA was slower, nice company yer keepin' ESA!). At this point the ESA has the same status as the MPAA. Anything they support must to viewed with extreme suspicion.
My steady 15mb connection with unlimited data transfer is still waiting for you to come to Brazil, OnLive. By the time I'm writing it, there's people buying pirated games for about $10 dollars out there... No, I don't mean torrenting, I mean spending f**king money. That money could be going to some developer or publisher, ya know? Aw, forget it...
If somebody could get an OnLive service up and running in Brazil, it would probably do well. But I wouldn't want to deal with the red-tape.
Yeah, interests - who cares about freedom and human rights now?