The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), or Protect-IP Act as it’s called in the House of Representatives, has been the talk of the internet-town (and regular towns) for months. Once everyone realized the implications this particular bill, they got extremely nervous and concerned phone calls and letters started pouring into Washington. The matter is still waiting to be settled when Congress returns from their winter recess but a list has surfaced showing particular companies who are in support of the controversial bill. And one of them is Marvel Entertainment.
Last week, popular domain registrar GoDaddy firmly announced its support for SOPA, garnering a huge internet backlash and boycott, web tools to aid in the boycott, and quick retraction of the company’s position.
The list, from the Judiciary Comittee, contains names of 124 companies in total and as you can imagine, Marvel is not the only publishing house on there. Scholastic, Harper Collins, Penguin and Random House are just a few others. It’s not clear why some companies are listed, like Marvel along with parent company Walt Disney’s ABC and Disney Publishing Worldwide while others are not. For instance, DC Comics’ parent company Time Warner is on the list (as well as Warner Music Group) but not DC themselves, although it stands to reason if the parent company supports it, so will any that fall under their umbrella.
Comic book piracy is a huge problem for the industry so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Marvel would feel the need to back the bill. Many movie, music and television organizations and companies are also on the list for obvious reasons. They don’t want their property stolen. Of course there’s many intricacies in this bill, which is why so many people are freaking out about it, and just because the people running the ship feel the need to support it as a business doesn’t mean the crew agrees with them.
But having your name on the list makes you a target and Marvel is sure to be hearing it from their fans about this. Although, I’m sure Tiffany and Co. and Revlon (also on the list) won’t be getting as much negative feedback. Needless to say, Disney could have saved Marvel a lot of headaches had they simply listed just Walt Disney instead.
(via Bleeding Cool)
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