SOPA's Baby

[Koh]

Actually it's not. It's the same reason behind guns. Just the fact that they exist means there will be people who use them for malicious intents, regardless of whether or not gun control is made stricter. The same applies to piracy. The moment companies release something, they better expect there to be free pirated versions out there. If they try to use DRM or some silly laws, that won't stop the pirates and never has. The only thing it hurts are those who play by the rules, and have to do all of these ridiculous steps just to USE the product (take what people would have had to do on the original plans of the XBox One as an example. Their extreme levels of DRM won't stop the pirates, but make regular users lives more difficult than need be).

[Lexou Duck]

yeah but even if SOPA is good for the economy doesn't make instantly make it morally acceptable

when i read these bills i always get the feeling they're shamelessly using a superficial excuse to make a law that gives em so much power over their people, power a government shouldnt have

rat bastards making the situation worse and worse :/

[Kriven]

I've already done my piracy song and dance many times before, but SOPA is good for the economy.

SOPA protects entrepreneurs and independent developers more than already-established large businesses. You guys are either severely over-exaggerating everything here or are being incredulously ignorant.

I don't see how removing jobs to protect businesses from pirates who were never going to purchase their products in the first place could possibly be good for the economy.

[Koh]

Which is exactly what I was saying about the pirates. Even if stricter rules are set, they're still going to pirate. Anyone who doesn't believe that obviously doesn't internet enough. If a site that houses a lot of pirating material gets shut down, they'll have been mirrored elsewhere and new sites will be made. Once something's on the internet, it's FOREVER on the internet. What's even funnier is the pirates jump on the product instantly. I recall either Pokemon Black/White or their sequels having their roms leaked all over the internet 2 DAYS BEFORE they even arrived on store shelves. That's pretty hardcore. These laws aren't going to prevent that, they're just going to make them do it even more to fight back. Instead of wasting resources to fight against something that's inevitably going to happen, they should, instead, use that money for other serious issues.

[alexmach1]

no company will use their own money from their own pockets to produce something that's going to be handed out and duplicated for free. at the same time, new businesses/game companies may lose a large part of their income and fall apart from one game being pirated, creating stagnation on the gaming market. you can't pretend that pirating is a small and avoidable issue.
and not every company can execute the Free2Play method.

[Koh]

No they wouldn't use their own money, but the government would use taxpayer money to maintain the resources to enforce SOPA. When I become a taxpayer and that were to happen, that would piss me off. There are better things to spend money on, like building new bridges, rather than worrying about some CD being digitally copied.

[alexmach1]

how do those even relate? how often do you see bridges being built, let alone needed with all the other bridges alongside them? you would rather fund bridge building with so many pre-existing bridges than aide the stopping of immoral practices? SOPA's not the best way to go about stopping piracy, but not fighting piracy at all is definitely worse when the gaming industry begins to fall apart or become stagnant. I think you would consider it worse if you poured money into something only to have it be given out for free, leaving you without a dollar to your name than owning up a few pennies.

[Koh]

I'm not saying they shouldn't fight pirates at all, but this level of intensity isn't going to solve anything, and will be a waste of money.

[Kriven]

You're making it sound like piracy is this rampant thing everybody's doing and the artist's are coming out with no potential gain, which isn't the case at all.

As of now, console piracy has, and seemingly will remain, an extraordinarily niche phenomenon. The majority of consumers do not pirate, and the majority of pirates are likely to buy lots of other cool shit from the people they're pirating. So much cool shit that they run the fuck out of money and have to download it.

ETA: There are lots of bridge-building projects which would help the people a lot more than SOPA ever could. All of our bridges (at least around here) are built only for motorized vehicles. It would be nice to have some pedestrian bridges.

Edit Again: I realize this post was game-centric and I forget what set me on that path, though I know SOPA is about a lot more than games. Still, there isn't any evidence that piracy has hurt markets even remotely, and in fact a whole lot of evidence to support the idea that piracy spreads the awareness about a product and increases its sales.

Enjoy mister Neil Gaiman: http://youtu.be/0Qkyt1wXNlI