They may take our Let's Plays, but they shall never take our freedom!
Player 1 here guys, with some very disturbing news coming from congress concerning gamers everywhere. This affects us, you, and all of our favorite game streamers on YouTube and Justin.TV, as David64rt said, "in a very negative way." As we speak, the government is attempting to pass Bill S.978 through legislation. Now, usually, politics is the last thing on your mind as you sit down to play a video game. However, this particular piece of (crap) legislation would make all live gaming streams illegal, and would force all of our favorite streamers (including X, 4PP, and Seananners) to take down their streams. Any further game streaming would be considered a felony without written permission from the companies producing the games. While this doesn't seem too bad at first glance, we must stop to consider the fact that gaming companies are getting hundreds of requests for rights to their games everyday. Most of these companies have minuscule legal teams who already have their hands full trying to deal with these requests everyday, forcing them to turn many of them down. Most likely the only way a streamer could get their gaming channel permission to stream just one game would be if they were able to hire a very good lawyer to get them into contact directly with these legal teams. Think of all the games you've played and enjoyed, simply because you saw a streamer play it and thought to yourself, "Wow, that looks like so much fun!" Or of how handy a Let's Play has been for you when trying to achieve 100 percent completion on a game. If this bill get's passed, we would lose all of this and more. We'd never be able to laugh at the guys from 4PP getting terrified by Fatal Frame again.
Now, I've voiced my concerns as a gaming blogger and a regular viewer of gaming streams. I also think that the concerns of an actual streamer should be heard as well. Who better than one of my personal favorite streamers, X himself:
Here's where we come in guys. A team has already gotten together to oppose this bill and it's attack on our "Internet Freedom." The Demand Progress movement is a response to this ridiculous new law, and it's something that we can all be a part of. I urge you to take ten seconds of your time to fill out their form and send it off to congress, so that we may protect our rights as a community of gamers. Here's the link, I've already done it, now it's your turn:
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