SOPA: Put A Stop To This Nonsense

This isn't so much a post as a heads up. A few people have asked me what SOPA is and why it's something that should be killed with fire. I figured the small viewership I have may not necessarily know what SOPA is or why it's not something to be excited about. So here's some info for you.

What is SOPA Anyway? 

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. It's goals aren't evil, in fact they are pretty noble. Piracy sucks if we're being honest. It takes profit away from developers, artists, and publishers. The goal of SOPA is to put the power under the control of the owners of these properties and allowing them to decide how best to distribute their products and media, as well as how to handle the online theft of them. On the surface this just seems like an attempt to stop people from stealing, which is, as I said, a pretty fair idea to be honest.

So How Does This Hurt The Internet Then?

Simply put, if a company thinks your infringing on copyrights, they can shutdown your site without warning. Oh and they can also demand ALL revenue pouring into said site. It doesn't matter if 99% of the sites revenue comes from ads, donations, or other places. If even .1% of it is coming from a copyright infringement then they can take all your profits. It would also allow them to do this regardless of whether or not the site is actively doing it or just allowing it to happen. I also requires search engines to remove offending sites from it's database, essentially making the site disappear. In practice, someone could even post a copy infringed link in a comments section, and the site it was posted on would be responsible.

Okay So It's Bad, But Who Is This Actually Going To Hurt?

Website owners. Plain and simple, if you own a website this bill will hurt. Youtube, IGN, Anime Season, Marshmallow Fluff!. All of us. Even I'm at risk with this bill if it passes. The scary thing is, the simple act of linking to pirated content immediately makes the site responsible. It's as crazy as it sounds, and the even scarier thing is there are so many places for someone to post pirated content and links to said content, that websites everywhere are basically facing an uncontrollable problem. And there is nothing that we can do about it if the bill passes. This doesn't just hurt the existing sites either. Many businesses start on the internet. So many, that the internet is one of the fastest growing industries in the US of A. One that is actually succeeding in creating jobs. This bill threatens to end that too.

Oh Wow, This Does Suck. So Who Actually Supports This Thing?

That's where it gets even scarier. In the gaming community there is a collection of companies called the ESA. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Sega and a slew of others are in this group and they all want to see this bill pass. The RIAA and Warner Brothers are noted others outside the games industry that support this bill. GoDaddy, the website domain registrar, did support the bill but after Wikipedia pulled all of it's domains, along with other notable companies and organizations, the loss in profits forced GoDaddy to withdraw it's support.

So, Is Anyone Against This?

Yep, and they are equally as big as the other side. Google, Youtube (owned by Google), the Wikimedia Foundation, which includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Yahoo, and the EFF. Not to mention the thousands of sites that depend on user generated content to survive. In truth while the wealth and power is somewhat balanced, there are a lot more people against it than for it.

This Doesn't Look Good.

No it doesn't. And I have some really bad news. As things stand right now, this bill seems set to pass. There's plenty of opposition, but there's too many big corporations that support it. Don't get me wrong, those of us against it will fight it every step of the way, but right now, the bill has enough support to pass.

But here's where the good news kicks in. You remember all those sites and companies listed above that are against it? They represent a huge amount of money in the internet industry. They will be ready to resist this bill heavily, even if it passes. There will be a huge legal battle the likes of which we probably have never seen if SOPA passes, and it could even be dismissed if the opposition is strong enough.

Okay, This Is Bad. How Can I Help?

Simple. Call or write your congressmen and tell them why this bill is bad, and that they should be fighting to prevent it. Sign the petition (link at the bottom of the post.) If you can (and especially not easy for us in the gaming industry, but try for me?) don't give the companies supporting it your money. Attend the American Censorship Day protests. Spread the word to others and tell them to do the same. This bill is up for vote on January 24th, and unless 41 Representatives say no, this bill WILL pass. 


This is set to hurt the internet immensely. No one will win in the long run, and in the short run things look pretty terrifying for us internet dwellers. So lets put a stop to it.
http://americancensorship.org/

Thanks for your time. I promise some fun for the next article.

Image Source: http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/0/5/1/6/6/3/9/STOP-SOPA-65944995136.png

Source: GamesRadar - High Horse: Save Our Internet 

Vaas: The Best Video Game Character Ever?

...Sorry Freeman, your out.

E3 has been, as usual, a flurry of activity. The barrage of information is oftentimes a bit overwhelming and sometimes people miss the best reveals or previews. I know I'm still sifting through a mountain of interviews, trailers, and reveals. Despite this I thought for sure I was going to be most impressed by various titles like Mass Effect 3, and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. However a bit later in the afternoon, I was browsing around, chatting with my friend Jimmy when I stumbled upon the Far Cry 3 gameplay demo. The gameplay was cool, the graphics were pretty solid, those things didn't blow me away per say, so much as they just looked really cool.

The voice acting and animation on the main villain Vaas on the other hand left me speechless.

"Have I ever told you...the definition...of insanity?" 

First off look at this guy. He LOOKS like an insane psychopath. Look at his eyes. You can see the fire and insanity in those eyes. His movement is also amazingly detailed...and slightly unpredictable. One moment, he's having a somewhat calm, albeit, disturbing, conversation with you, the next he suddenly blurts out, "...I am sorry....I don't LIKE....the way your looking at ME!" and then proceeds to go a little crazy, flipping over a makeshift table. He calms down for a minute walks over to the cement block your tied to, and shoves it off the cliff your next to. Which brings me to the voice acting. I am desperately looking to find out how gave Vaas' voice performance because whoever it is gave one of the best performances I have ever seen. Some people (not me... specifically anyway...) are comparing it to the kind of performance Heath Ledger gave in The Dark Knight. That's not blowing it out of proportion, that's how good it really was. And this is just the first ten or so minutes.

Think about that for a second. A lot of people are already blown away by Vaas and we've seen just one micro-fragment of the game. If the developers over at  Ubisoft Montreal pull this off right, and make Vaas' story and character development unique and/or interesting, he might become one of the best fictional characters ever. Obviously we still have a ways to go before Far Cry 3 is released, and in that time we'll see plenty of more gameplay videos, and learn lots of new information to be sure, but thanks to Vaas, I can't wait to see more, because I can't wait to see if the other characters can match up to his performance. 

Since this is a bit shorter than I want it to be, I'll wrap it up with the ten things I learned at this years E3...

10.) Nintendo's Wii-U is essentially a gigantic Nintendo DS.

9.) Star Wars Kinect is going to be the worst Star Wars game in a long time. Maybe even ever.

8.) Microsoft didn't care that Bungie "Finished the Fight."

7.) I never want to be the first person on stage at E3's press conferences.

6.) Peter Molyneux will need all the optimisim he has to get through his current Journey.

5.) Sony is still intent on getting into the handheld market. 

4.) Microsoft intends to make Cable obsolete.

3.) Nintendo might finally be trying to get M rated gamers interested in their consoles.

2.) Elder Scrolls Dragons are going to be the best creatures in a game ever.

1.) Microsoft still can't keep secrets.

That's all folks so until next time...

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