14 DAY TRIAL // 38 Studios, the developer who is currently working on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning with publisher Electronic Arts, has announced that it cannot support the current version of the Stop Online Piracy Act that is currently under consideration before the United States Congress.
Curt Schilling, who is the founder of 38 Studios, has said that his studio is a “strong supporter” of any measure that protects trademarks and copyright but the current version of the SOPA comes to close to threatening the “freedom and openness” that the current version of the Internet provides.
Major League Gaming, the biggest online eSports organization in the United States, has also signaled that it is against SOPA stating it stands “firmly against both the specifics of SOPA and the philosophy behind the bill”.
To prove its point the MLG has moved more than 100 domains from GoDaddy.com, which is a strong supporter of SOPA, to a rival company.
Other video game companies who have recently opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act include: developer Nival, publisher THQ and MMO oriented company Trion Worlds.
Other video game companies have taken a more nuanced stance.
Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Sony have been shown as withdrawing support for SOPA but continue to lobby for it because they remain associated with the Entertainment Software Association trade organization.
Epic Games has also come out against it recently but it’s not clear whether it will withdraw from the ESA over the bill.
SOPA would make it easier for copyright holders to take down sites that distribute pirated content, which would be a boon for the piracy hit video game industry.
But a number of high tech companies have said that the entire nature of the Internet will change because of the bill and that overall freedom of expression will be affected in negative ways if SOPA becomes law.