First I should say that Gaslamp Games is a company. We sell products, and our motivations as individuals are swayed by the fact that our personal successes are tied to the successes of our company. We have a vested interest in allowing Gaslamp to be successful. That said, Gaslamp Games would cease to exist as the entity that you know and love if SOPA and PIPA are passed.
If SOPA passes, it requires that we censor each and every post or message within our blog posts and our forums to ensure that no piracy or hints at piracy are posted. If we aren’t successful, we could become blacklisted and unreachable without so much as a chance to defend ourselves. What’s more, the bills together give internet service providers the ability to make these decisions on their own, only requiring “credible evidence” of piracy-oriented content. We simply can’t afford to police our community to a degree where we could be somewhat assured to be operating within the parameters set out by these bills. What’s more, we don’t want to police our users. Our community, like every other healthy community, depends upon some degree of freedom of expression.
Gaslamp’s vested interest aside, there are some very serious freedom of speech issues. I am no expert here but I have read a lot about SOPA and PIPA over the last week or so and I strongly urge you to look into them on your own, and of course, to try to hear both sides of the story. While it is our opinion that SOPA and PIPA are too heavy-handed in their attempt to lessen a problem which is a serious concern, it is most important that you know what is going on and have the opportunity to share an informed opinion with your government representatives.
Thanks. That’s really all I have to say on the matter.
Actually, they won’t require “credible evidence” at ALL. Like YouTube’s bot-based takedown system (which has so many false positives all you have to do is ask them to check the video and 95% of the time that it’s fair use, they reinstate it!), all it would take for a SOPA takedown is an accusation. No evidence, nothing, just “zomg someone posted something bad on Gaslamp Games Forums” and the whole domain is ret-goned.
The entire thing is a travesty in terms of wasting time and granting undue powers—sadly many are fully onboard and are unlikely to care a whit if it means they get voted out of office to a “downgrade” to a high payed lobbying position.
This is pretty much a scorch and salt the earth situation from the Old Media institutions and such finally butting heads with the upstarts more tech oriented—I don’t see it ending well especially given the sway at high levels alongside the ability to constantly insert this in unrelated bills to “force” a sign. : (
I am fascinated by the fact that many of the same politicians who rant about the horrors of big government and heavy regulation insist we need an extensive force to police the Internet. No contradictions, there.
Thanks for posting this. It’s great to see everyone fighting at unity against it.
The first Link is wrong and gives an odd impression of SOPA. The acronym means “Stop Online Piracy Act”, not “Stop Online Privacy Act”. Your vague privacy in the net is not in danger.
That… is a pretty bad typo. Fixed.
I actually thought it was irony.
Unintended maybe. We like to be wisecracking jerks sometimes, but loosing McCarthyism on the internet is a pretty serious matter.
Yeah, it’s pretty much SERIOUS BUSSINESS. A similar law got passed here lately – hopefully our government will hold up its own ineptitude standards and it won’t be much of a problem.
I don’t care if this is offensive.
GODDAMNED AMERICANS ARE KILLING THE INTERNET.
That said, mighty fine americans are also trying to save the internet.
No offense taken. Frankly, between this and the NDAA I’m pretty disgusted with my country. 🙂
As an American, I’m not too happy to know that my fellow Americans are trying to destroy our relations with the world. Our elderly politicians don’t need to be involved with our internet affairs if this is their reaction to piracy. It’s like trying to kill roaches with a nuke. By god, we’re trying to nuke the internet! Scotland, here I come!
Thanks for doing this, guys. More respect to you. Yeah, even more.
Agree!