The ESA's SOPA Opera | 10 Years Ago This Month
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Monday 31st January 2022
The games industry moves pretty fast, and there's a tendency for all involved to look constantly to what's next without so much worrying about what came before. That said, even an industry so entrenched in the now can learn from its past.
So to refresh our collective memory and perhaps offer some perspective on our field's history, GamesIndustry.biz runs this monthly feature highlighting happenings in gaming from exactly a decade ago.
From 2005 to 2011, the industry was largely unified in its lobbying efforts in the US because it was facing a serious threat from legislation aimed at curbing violent games, particular a case over a California law which went to the Supreme Court before being struck down in a decision spelling out that games qualified for free speech protections.
The victory in court was a high point for US trade body the Entertainment Software Association as far as its lobbying efforts and popularity across the industry go. After all, it wasn't like players, publishers, platform holders or any other segment of the industry wanted government restrictions on violent games. But the good vibes from that victory wouldn't last terribly long, as the ESA went from fighting government overreach to championing it in about six months. The Supreme Court ruling came in June of 2011, but by January of 2012, the ESA was publicly stumping for another piece of legislation that the various stakeholders in the industry were less unanimously enamored about.
The ESA went from fighting government overreach to championing it in about six months
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its counterpart Protect IP Act (PIPA) were bills in the US House of Representatives and Senate
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