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EA, Nintendo, Sony Quietly Withdraw SOPA Support 204

wbr1 writes "Electronista reports that Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts have all pulled their support for SOPA, but have not issued any statements as to why. The house.gov list of SOPA supporters is here."

EA, Nintendo, Sony Quietly Withdraw SOPA Support

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  • by eldavojohn (898314) * <eldavojohn@nOsPam.gmail.com> on Saturday December 31, 2011 @11:24AM (#38548136) Journal
    There's no way to know if this influenced it but Anonymous threatened Sony on Youtube [youtube.com] (transcript here [playstationlifestyle.net] and a few more specifics here [playstationlifestyle.net]) the other day. Of course, even if that did influence Sony I'm sure the last thing you'd want is to send Anonymous the message that they can push you around so don't bother waiting for admission/explanation.

    Looking at this list, there's far better targets of groups of lawyers and lobbyists that don't do a goddamn thing or sell any tangible product. Not sure why those wouldn't be prioritized by Anonymous but, well, that's crowdsourcing for you. Maybe they identified Sony as the biggest fish that would disrupt the highest number of placated sheep who might actually contact their senator when their opiate flow is disturbed? Nahhhh ...
  • by wrwetzel (543389) on Saturday December 31, 2011 @11:40AM (#38548272)
    I suspect that the list of objectors is much longer than that of supporters. It would be good to see that, too. It would be especially good for Congress to see that side-by-side with the list of supporters. Bill
  • Is it me... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hilather (1079603) on Saturday December 31, 2011 @11:57AM (#38548372)
    Or are there only corporations on the list of supporters. Are there no individuals left? Or are they just not worth listing?
  • by Okian Warrior (537106) on Saturday December 31, 2011 @12:13PM (#38548496) Homepage Journal

    I've been puzzling over the corruption caused by business influence on government for awhile.

    Setting it up as a problem in game theory, the tenet "candidate who spends the most money wins the election [opensecrets.org]" makes the outcome a foregone conclusion: elected government officials will be in the pocket of corporations, in all cases.

    This may be a way out.

    We've bemoaned our inability to influence the political system, but here we see a striking example of the population rising up and affecting specific government actions.

    Public outcry stopped the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, or at least it helped. Similarly, public outcry attempted to hurt Bank of America and GoDaddy over their political beliefs.

    If we can make this work it will give us the fine control over government that we have been missing. We've been able to affect small companies - HBGary [arstechnica.com], Stratfor [nytimes.com], Ocean Marketing [kotaku.com], Sony [arstechnica.com]. (OK, Sony isn't that small, but it was a slice of Sony much smaller than BOA.)

    Future companies may need to think twice before supporting oppressive or corrupt legislation - if only because of the chance that the people will rise up and hurt their bottom line.

    We haven't had an effect on the really big companies yet (BOA), but I'm hoping that this grows to be a worldwide trend. We need to install a healthy dose of respect for public opinion. To put it succinctly, the companies have to fear the possibility of public retribution, both legal and extra-legal.

    This will give us the power to affect legislation, to control the corruption. This will put government back in the hands of the people.

    If we can make this work...

  • by hairyfeet (841228) <bassbeast1968@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Saturday December 31, 2011 @01:01PM (#38548896) Journal

    There have been a lot of articles specifically about Microsoft and Apple pushing the ESA to back off SOPA. There may be some dissension in the ranks.

    Don't know about Apple but you can understand why with MSFT as piracy is their bestest friend! just look at how quick they backed off that reduced functionality mode on Vista when it looked like the pirates would stay on XP, having the number of websites reporting MSFT OSes having no way to distinguish pirate versions from legit gives MSFT higher numbers which helps them sell more copies to OEMs. Can you imagine how quickly someone would invest in Linux to come up with a version that worked for the masses if Windows piracy was ended tomorrow and everyone had to pay retail? Hell Windows 7 is easier to pirate than XP and Vista ever was!

    These companies are starting to realize that SOPA is a good way to shoot themselves in the head because the one that is a pirate now ends up being a paying customer later with the knowledge to use their software, just ask adobe with PhotoShop. i bet every Photoshop customer was a one time kid that pirated the thing and by the time they got out into the world the had PS skills which meant more customers for Adobe. Wasn't it Gates that said "If they are gonna pirate i want them to pirate from us"? I know I saw Ballmer a few years ago give an interview where he said flat footed to the effect "I couldn't care less about some kid passing a copy of XP around the dorm room, i care about the boat coming from Manila with pirate copies that are so good i can't tell them apart" because he knew that piracy keeps people using MSFT software!

    I just wish Ballmer wasn't such a dipshit as he had literally tripped over a way to end Windows piracy in the west and let it slip away. That $50 Win 7 HP upgrade which would install on a clean drive frankly was amazing, I saw guys who had NEVER owned a legit Windows suddenly all running legal copies of Windows. Its just a damned shame these companies can't see what Valve saw years ago, which is the trick is not to ruin the web with draconian laws trying to end piracy but to get the pirates switched over into paying users. I'd love to see what kind of money they made off the Xmas sale this year as i bet it was truly insane because by making their service cheap and easy it literally is easier to buy from Steam than pirate anymore. Too bad the others like the MPAA can't seem to catch that clue.

  • by erroneus (253617) on Saturday December 31, 2011 @01:08PM (#38548966) Homepage

    Actually, I rather doubt that had anything to do with it at all.

    Sony and its leaders are pretty arrogant. They know any attack is temporary. They might have to stop online sales or the collection of sales/personal data on internet connected servers or things like that, but it wouldn't otherwise faze them.

    No, what I think got to them is the tremendous and mobile public response made against the likes of Go Daddy. I'm ever so proud of our internet. And by internet, I don't mean the network devices, ISPs and other business and government presence. I mean the people who use it. You reading this now are the internet... the 'series of tubes' that you are. :)

    The internet is really coming into its own as a force for public expression and more importantly for change in the public's interest. It's the last chance the world really has for "peaceful revolution" as it were. For a lot of us, we imagine there will be jack-boots marching across the US and small groups of resistance everywhere. It's not that hard to imagine really. But lately, it seems the business interests which pay [read: buy] the government is having its money supply threatened. That's where the real fear comes into play.

    Fact is, most of all this 'online piracy' is over things which aren't necessary for life. It's entertainment. There will always be entertainment even if we have to sing and play it for ourselves. (YouTube has proven that well enough I think) If people get pissed off enough to boycott any of them in large numbers for any amount of time, they will not just interrupt cash flow for the short term, people will begin to realize that a world without Sony or Nintendo would be... not so different... not so bad. And believe me -- a Linux based F/OSS console and gaming network would spring up so fast with Google's Android as the core, it would become a huge game changer.

    They can't afford to piss off their customers any longer. THAT's the fear you are witnessing them act on.

  • Try, try again (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ja'Achan (827610) on Saturday December 31, 2011 @01:22PM (#38549068) Homepage
    That's a lot of bad press everyone is getting. Perhaps they should cancel the proposal, and try again in a few months.

May all your PUSHes be POPped.