Maybe a little late and a dollar short, but the ESA has officially dropped support for SOPA.

Of course they are doing this only after the recent blackout protest caused a bevy of US Senators to pull support and even the main backer of the bill, Rep. Lamar Smith, pulling the entire Bill from the House agenda, effectively killing it.

The ESA has released the following statement.

"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. 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.”

Somewhat hollow words if you ask me. If ESA has been 'committed to the passage of balanced legislation' then they wouldn't have supported the bill in the first place. Instead, they pushed the Bill until it was declared dead, and only acted after  they were about to be left with an entire three-egg omelet on their face.

But a question now remains. Will Red 5 Studio now be at E3?

Comments

  • Avatar
    s1yfox
    12 years, 10 months ago

    Yeah yeah you just sit there and shut up ESA. In the great words of the westside connect-gang, "BOW DOWN". We Th!e People have spoken

  • Avatar
    Moom
    12 years, 10 months ago

    They probably read todays Penny Arcade comic and realized how silly they looked.

  • Avatar
    Relay
    12 years, 10 months ago

    Sadly, the fight is far from over.

  • Avatar
    Zladko
    12 years, 10 months ago

    The best thing to come out of SOPA was the hearings. Watching the drama of American politics has been some of the best entertainment I've had in a while.

    http://i.imgur.com/XevAJ.gif

  • Avatar
    Actionreplay
    12 years, 10 months ago

    Yes, draw support because the Senators did, not because the people did. This is pathetic for the game industry when our Software Association is a flip flopping piece of shit.

  • Avatar
    Sickbrain
    12 years, 10 months ago

    I'm downloading latest episode of Californication (from Russian site, I might add) to celebrate this achievement.

  • Avatar
    chad
    12 years, 10 months ago

    be careful with links:
    http://gawker.com/5877707/the-evil-new-tactic-behind-anonymous-massive-revenge-attack

  • Avatar
    Pokop
    12 years, 10 months ago

    "Yeah, uhh...we've stopped supporting SOPA now that it is, you know...pretty much dead now..so, uhh..don't hate us?"

    ESA, you're a buncha saints. /sarcasm

  • Avatar
    WingZero
    12 years, 10 months ago

    Their quote doesn't say anything about dropping support. They might as well say nothing.

    Red 5 should continue to stay out of E3.

  • Avatar
    xaviar5829
    12 years, 10 months ago

    I say the only reason they said ‘committed to the passage of balanced legislation‘ Was to hide the fact that they screwed up by supporting them in the first place. they didnt think that in the first place before they supported them. no its too stupid to say that if they already had that in mind to support them.

  • Avatar
    pjunk
    12 years, 10 months ago

    There's something worse. And it's worldwide. http://www.laquadrature.net/acta

  • Avatar
    CrossOutlaw
    12 years, 10 months ago

    They had to put this statement out to try to save face mostly because there have been a few videos and words spreading around to protest the ESA by getting the press and devs to not go or to cover E3, until they stopped supporting sopa and pipa, which the ESA runs and make the most money on.

  • Avatar
    DamonD
    12 years, 10 months ago

    I think it's premature to say it's dead, very premature.

    But yeah, good to have ESA do this but pretty funny considering how staunchly they were trumpeting it just a little while ago. Pretty obvious about face in all this.

  • Avatar
    Mroblivion
    12 years, 10 months ago

    Now to woo sony and the other big dogs off the SOPA side of the war...