EA, Sony, Nintendo pull support from SOPA (but their industry association still supports it)

EA and Nintendo and Sony's electronics divisions have renounced their support of the disastrous Stop Online Piracy Act, but their industry association, the Entertainment Software Alliance, still supports it.

However, all three companies are members of the Entertainment Software Association, a group that still remains aligned to SOPA. Although their individual express support of the bill has been removed, these companies still back it by virtue of their association with the ESA. Until the ESA backs off, these companies are still in. They ostensibly went from backing it twice to backing it once.

While it's great to see that companies are realizing SOPA support looks bad for them, simply hiding that support isn't quite as good as actively removing it. These three companies, along with every single publisher on this list, are still culpable for SOPA, and if they respect their audiences, they'd do well to stop.

EA, Nintendo, Sony reduce SOPA support by 50% (via Reddit)

• [Andrew Singleton]

  This disturbes me. Greatly. At first it looks like member groups not having control of what the collective Org does, but on the other hand it could be taken as trying to disassociate each Brand (nintendo, ea, etc) with highly unpopular moves to keep customers from pulling a GoDaddy.

  My Wii is already modded (and I love the added functionality modding gives.)My DS has been rendered unmoddable due to firmware update. Anyone want one?

  • [EH]

    That’s the purpose of these industry groups: to play piggy in the middle. The ESA, MPAA, RIAA…all cartels created for the purpose of being the bad guy without reflecting (too much) on the members.

  • [Dennis Smith]

    Did you say Org, Borg?

• [beforewepost]

  Nice of Sony Electronics to pull their support of SOPA. But the electronics division wasn’t the division that supported SOPA in the first place. It was their music and entertainment divisions that supported it.  Left hand, meet right hand.

  Some of you may recall it was Sony Music that thought putting root software on music CDs was an excellent idea. Yeah, same guys, same brilliance.

• [Steve Hoefer]

  When I saw the ESA on the list I assumed the ESA were one of the principal authors along with the MPAA and RIAA.  And I’m kind of surprised (but pleased) to see game makers pulling their support. 

  Hell, if Sony doesn’t support it you know that it’s more than ridiculous.

  On the other hand game makers understand that future revenue is coming from online and breaking the internet is just going to hurt them.  The MP/RIAA haven’t figured that out yet.

  I can’t say if the ESA will pull it’s backing or not, but keep in mind this was a no-work week for a lot of businesses. Starting Tuesday we’ll hopefully see more organizations responding.

  • [SedanChair]

    I wouldn’t count on ESA changing their stance. It is literally their job to create and pass laws of this nature. 

    They don’t mind being unpopular; if they did, they wouldn’t be lobbyists.

  • [EH]

    The video game industry is about 5 times bigger than the music and movie industries combined.

    • [Guest]

      get real.

• [brerrabbit23]

  MSFT is still an ESA member…

  • [brerrabbit23]

    Oh, wow.

    Poked around just a little and read that MSFT is apparently “quietly” opposed to SOPA. They’re backing PIPA (at least, as of November) but multiple contacts (including those in the BSA) have suggested that they feel SOPA “needs work”.

• [Graysmith]

  I wish someone more enterprising than myself (like the EFF maybe?) would draft a manifesto proclaiming that the undersigned promises to boycott the products and services of any company in support of SOPA and PIPA. There needs to be a movement started to get people to commit to a real boycott and in doing so send a very loud and clear message to these companies and organizations that if they go through with this, they can no longer count on us as their customers.

  • [MarcVader]

    Here’s a list of corporations that support SOPA, compiled by a redditor.
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xjisu18X6s7lPtAsIQg5Ol3KJjymPT2az1kasQVwGiw/mobilebasic?pli=1

    There’s a lot of activism currently at Reddit. Redditors are probably going to form a PAC in order to oust a SOPA/NDAA supporter and incumbent representative from office as punishment and warning. They have chosen Paul Ryan (R) from Wisconsin as their first target. A politician from the Democratic party will be next but has not yet been decided upon.
    http://www.pullryan.com/
    http://www.reddit.com/r/operationpullryan

    If you are a US citizen get involved!

• [ialreadyexist]

  I think the key point isn’t whether a company pulls support from SOPA but whether a company switches to actively fighting against it.  Any company can, with weasel words, try to get themselves off of the “We support SOPA” lists and hope they catch a break and people forgive them.  However, as former vocal supporters, they have already done damage and shouldn’t get a pass by withdrawing support.  The only way they can get that pass (from me) is by actively campaigning against SOPA.

  • [ialreadyexist]

    This would also take care of the problem of a company not having control of what a broader industry group they happen to belong to does and says.  Otherwise, as the article implies, these companies get to be on both sides of the fence at the same time.

• [GeekMan]

  In the supporters list: Estée Lauder, L’Oreal, Revlon… can someone explain to me what the hell cosmetics could possibly have to do with online piracy?

  • [Andrew Singleton]

    Nothing at all. They want to be able to go after competetors (be they cheap knock-offs or otherwise that use the Internet as their main revenue stream.)

    Pharma wants in on this so they can shut down sites that sell medication from Canada since it’s apparently cheaper there (and legal to buy too.)

  • [Dennis Smith]

    This law is a problem for the whole world, not just USA. If I sell a product that is legal in one country, but has possible infringement issues in the USA, even if I don’t sell it in the US, the domain could be pulled, and I would loose income as a result. There is obviously more to this, but in a nutshell, that what could happen.

    Furthermore the likes of the perfumes industry often have mark-up’s as much as 1000% or more in many cases for there products, if someone makes a product elsewhere, they’d do anything to kill it if they can. Worse still, if their products are sold as grey imports, even if this is legal to do in said country, the brand owners still call them fakes, even using veiled claims of counterfeiting in court to bring people retailing there products overseas. The prices are fixed in countries according to the value of the item, and the income of the average person in each county, if I buy from a poor country and sell in a wealthy one, pay the right taxes etc, the product is still a counterfeit in the eyes of the product manufacturer and they will fight it in court if they can.