Gaming giants withdraw support for SOPA

Sony, Nintendo and Electronic Arts are the latest companies to pull their support for a controversial anti-piracy bill, which could block Americans from viewing websites.

The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) aims to eradicate websites that offer pirated material by having them removed from the internet completely.

If the bill were to pass in the US Senate, a content provider who believes that a site is infringing on its copyrighted material (or even hosting links to its content) can have the offending site taken down.

SOPA would also give the right for companies to order that advertising and transaction revenue by cut off to offending sites and for domain names to be blocked and blacklisted.

Now, according to Business Insider, three of the world's most prominent gaming companies are believed to have withdrawn support for SOPA, following a massive backlash from the public.

All those in favour? Run for cover

Web hosting company GoDaddy.com experienced a mass transfer of domain names away from its company after throwing its weight behind the proposals.

The company later withdrew its support for SOPA, which is currently being deliberated in the US Senate. The likes of Facebook, eBay, Wikipedia, and Twitter are also against the plans.

The major proponents of the bill are content producers like Universal and Warner Bros music, Viacom, ESPN, ABC, Major League Baseball and the National Football League.

Critics of SOPA, and the like-minded Protect IP legislation, believe legitimate websites would suffer unintentional consequences from a scattergun approach, while it could affect jobs and investment in start-ups.

Via: Business Insider, Engadget