Do you know what SOPA is? If you’re unaware of it, it’s the “Stop Online Piracy Act”, and it seeks to possibly severely limit what people can do online. Despite meaning well in its concept, it goes forth into its goal of preventing piracy blindly and with little mercy. Joining the ranks against SOPA is Riot Games, the developers behind the popular free-to-play game League of Legends. Although supportive of the point behind the bill (stopping copyright infringement of movie, music, etc), they acknowledge that it could damage their game and other games like it, as well as websites that feature user-created content.
How would SOPA/PIPA impact League of Legends players?
- Kills streaming. If any single streamer plays copyrighted music (or alt tabs into a movie or other owned content) on their stream, there is a significant risk of the entire streaming service being taken down. In some cases, it could even result in criminal penalties for the streamer.
- Threatens independent content creation. Services we all use to create and share League of Legends related content, such as YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, streaming websites such as Own3d and Twitch, and more would be at risk of shutting down or greatly restricting the scope of legitimate content allowed on their sites.
- Attacks our community. Aspects of our service such as the official forums and potentially even in-game chat, could be taken down or have their features reduced based on user behavior.
- Other harmful effects. SOPA/PIPA undermine established intellectual property legislation like the DMCA, raise serious constitutional free speech issues, and could even compromise the basic security infrastructure of the internet.
Riot Games urges fans of the game, and those opposed to this harmful bill to speak out, which you can do here.
[Source: League of Legends Community Forum]
[Image via Riot Games]
