# Minecraft going dark January 18 in SOPA protest



## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

Mojang boss Markus Persson says Minecraft.net, Mojang.com will be taken offline next week in stand against controversial legislation. 










The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has already pushed Red 5 Studios to shut down the beta and website for Firefall on January 18, but now, an even more prominent game company is readying a blackout to be held on the same day.  


Minecraft.net and Mojang.com will be "blocked" next week.

Mojang studio head Markus Persson today announced via Twitter that Minecraft.net and Mojang.com will be taken offline on January 18 in protest of SOPA. Persson did not say how long the blackout will last.

While the browser-based version of Minecraft will be unavailable through Minecraft.net during the downtime, gamers can still play the game if they have previously downloaded it.

Mojang joins Epic Games, Runic Games, Riot Games, and Red 5 Studios as game companies openly professing disapproval of SOPA. However, not all gaming entities are against the measure. The Entertainment Software Association--the game industry's representative body--has pledged its support for SOPA. According to the ESA, the game industry requires effective protection against the illegal acquisition of games and those who facilitate it. 

Companies that support the bill--including the National Football League and GameSpot parent company CBS--argue that it offers necessary protection to content creators. Opponents of the bill, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argue that SOPA infringes upon First Amendment rights and will ultimately deprive the Internet of non-infringing content.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

What I have read of this SOPA thing seems to indicate it some of the companies backing it like Sony and MS, companies that like ToS and TC's that give them more control than is normally legally allowed, are doing so to try get more legal control of the internet in their favour, and that they are using the piracy issue as an excuse to do it, almost hiding behind that as a trojan horse.

The SOPA legislation wont change how piracy occurs one bit, all it will do is let the bigger companies do some of the more unhand things they want to, but give them a legal standing on which to do it. I think the very fact the companies for and against it are who they are is a big indication that this is the case.


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