SOPA, the broad bill being considered by Congress which would expand liability for content hosts if users post infringing content, is generally supported by content creator groups and generally opposed by internet and technology groups. This puts game industry companies in a strange spot, at least theoretically – game companies obviously create content and make their money primarily through sales of that content, so if they fell in line with the rest of content creators, they should complain about piracy and join the ranks of the SOPA supporters. Indeed, many of them are implicitly supporting SOPA through their membership in the Entertainment Software Association, which is lobbying support for the bill. But game companies also increasingly make their money over the internet, taking advantage of many of the networks that SOPA would hinder to both sell virtual goods and build communities (games also increasingly have some unique built-in DRM, but let’s ignore that for now). So where are these companies falling as the battle lines are drawn?
Riot Games, maker of League of Legends (LoL), came out yesterday in strong opposition to SOPA on their forums. Brandon Beck, CEO of Riot Games, wrote rather briefly saying that SOPA would kill streaming, threaten content creation, hurt the community of LoL, and more. The post was popular to say the least, and it’s already garnered 2,196 posts in slightly over 24 hours. Even cooler, an attorney at Riot Games took to Reddit to answer questions about SOPA and whatever else people wanted to know about relating to Riot Games, IP, and the proposed act itself. While the entire thread is worth a glance, the quote I think worth highlighting is where he says that based on the response, Riot Games will be taking more public actions against SOPA later:
Yeah, we’re definitely doing more beyond just this announcement. Some of it will be public-facing, some of it is more calculated to maximize legislative impact against this bill (and is far less interesting to the public at large). But yeah, we’re not just saying “we hate SOPA!” and going away.
Riot Games is already one of my favorite companies – They are making a free-to-play game that monetizes by building a compelling product, and it’s working, which is awesome enough. They also have a great sense of humor, and now they are taking a stance against SOPA. Plus they apparently employ awesome lawyers! Sign me up.
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