Riot Games: SOPA "attacks our community"

Riot Games has used its community forum to public declare its opposition to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.

"These bills are a misguided attempt to curb the illegal piracy of copyrighted content (like movies, music and games)," said CEO and co-founder of the League Of Legends developer, Brandon Beck.

Epic Games, Trion Worlds, and 38 Studios are among the other developers who have publicly denounced the bill. The Entertainment Software Association, of which a number of publishers and developers are members, still supports it.

Beck explained that while the company supported legitimate efforts to prevent piracy, SOPA is a threat to any website that hosts user generated content.

He used the simple example of someone playing a song in the background of a League Of Legends stream, and the copyright holder filing a claim.

"Under the law, ad networks, payment providers and internet service providers are now potentially liable for their user's infringement. These services could then be compelled to immediately remove support for a streaming website or face a costly legal battle - at a minimum cutting off financial means, and likely shutting off the site entirely."

The post goes as far as to say SOPA would impact League of Legends directly by killing streaming, threatening the creation and sharing of League Of Legends content, potentially shutting down forums and in game chat and argues that the bill could "raise serious constitutional free speech issues, and could even compromise the basic security infrastructure of the internet."

Beck even prompts community members to write to their congressperson. Responses to the post have now spread to 196 pages.