A message from the Chieftain

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 January 2012 01:03 Written by Kragh Thursday, 19 January 2012 00:58

(See the original notice here)

While we generally try to keep our politics separate from the clan, the SOPA and PIPA bills represent a direct threat to the culture surrounding online games. Under the proposed legislation, our clan website could be shut down by the federal government simply because someone posted a screenshot containing copyrighted content or linked to a site arbitrarily deemed to exist solely to violate copyright law. The entire World of Warcraft domain could be shut down (including login servers) simply because someone posted such a link or image on their forums.

Security, free speech, and the creative and innovative spirit that drives the best of what the internet has to offer will be compromised greatly by the effects of these bills.

These bills represent a slippery slope that will result in the destruction of all that makes the internet so powerful in our culture. The internet today is the great equalizer, where a single person can be heard just as readily as a massive corporation. If such legislation is passed, how much longer will it be before further restrictions are made? How long before the internet becomes no better than television, where only content endorsed by multimedia giants makes it to our screens?

To all fellow US citizens in the Blacktooth Grin, I urge you all to contact your congressmen and senators.

-Samuel "Krom'gosh" Colburn
Chieftain, Programmer, Human