The industry is lobbying against Stop Killing Games!

[Randrye]

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Hello! I have a development on
the "Stop Killing Games" campaign.

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Now, as I mentioned earlier, it's recently
crossed the one million signature mark.

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Though I'm assuming nothing.

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In fact, I've been given stats
that there was a previous initiative

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that had 250,000 of its
signatures invalidated.

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And I could see us
setting a new record there.

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So keep signing. That's the first thing.

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Second, for anyone who doubts
how powerful this initiative can be,

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we now have a lobbying group
issuing a statement about us.

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Do you think if we had no
chance of changing things,

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we would have lobbyists
coming out against us?

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Well, a big one is Video Games Europe.

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Best I can tell, this is essentially
the voice of the industry.

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So of course they're going to be
against any proposal we make,

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because they're ideologically opposed
to us being able to retain our games.

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I really can't emphasize that enough.

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Even if every developer in
the world was for our proposal,

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the industry would still be against it.

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Because it's not developers who
make most of the big decisions.

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It's shareholders and
companies worth billions.

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So with that in mind, let's go through this
statement quick by our opposition here.

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"We appreciate the
passion of our community.

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"However, the decision to discontinue
online services is multifaceted,

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"never taken lightly, and must
be an option for companies

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"when an online experience is
no longer commercially viable."

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Well, I have great news for
you, Video Games Europe.

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We are in no way seeking to impede
your right to discontinue online services.

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We are saying you can shut down
your games whenever you want.

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But you have to do that responsibly,

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in a way that doesn't take back
rights you already sold to customers.

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Yeah, some people forget that companies
have to sell you some rights to begin with,

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to even play the games.

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"We understand that it can
be disappointing for players,

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"but when it does happen, the industry
ensures that players are given fair notice

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"of the prospective changes in compliance
with local consumer protection laws."

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Okay, well first off, I'm not a lawyer,
but this guy at WBS Legal is.

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And he thinks Ubisoft probably broke
the law when it shut down "The Crew",

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giving players only
three months notice,

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when they should have
given more like two years.

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Yeah, you know. Ubisoft?
One of your members?

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So this is probably a false
statement out the gate.

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But you know what?
That's not even our issue.

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So I don't even care how much
notice you're giving the players.

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What I care about is that you're
not depriving them of their purchase.

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"Private servers are not always a
viable alternative option for players,

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"as the protections we put in
place to secure players' data,

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"remove illegal content, and
combat unsafe community content,

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"would not exist and would
leave rights holders liable."

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Okay, several things here.
We have to break it down.

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"Private servers are not always
a viable alternative option."

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So they're saying for a new game concept,
which hasn't even been made yet,

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sometimes there is NO WAY they can
add an end-of-life plan to the design?

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Their programmers' fingers
simply can't type that?

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I would love to see them say
this to a room full of developers.

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I think the industry would be
surprised how viable it was

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if the law said you can't take
back the limited license rights

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you already sold to the customer.

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And this next part.
Yes, this part is true.

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Players will absolutely be getting
a rougher and more wild experience

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playing an unsupported game.

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I happen to know a
thing or two about that.

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So yes, that's the nature
of anything unsupported.

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That's not a good excuse to
destroy what people paid for.

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It just means they're on their own.

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But then they say this part:

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"It would leave rights holders liable."

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Okay, I am not a lawyer,

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but my first impression is, this
strikes me as very not true.

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The way I read this,
they're saying they are

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incapable of writing an
end-user license agreement

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that absolves them of
all liability on shutdown.

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Like planning for end-of-life,
apparently it's just not possible.

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So me, as a layman,

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I'm wondering what's the problem
with adding a line like this to the EULA?

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"Once our company ends support, we
are not responsible for any and all issues

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"that arise from users
continuing to operate the game

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"in a discontinued
and unsupported state,

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"and absolve ourselves from any and all
liability pertaining to its continued use."

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There's probably a better way
to say that, but you get the idea.

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They seem to be saying a line
like that is just impossible to write.

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See, I'm puzzled by this,
because as a consumer,

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I've seen all kinds of
things have support end,

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but I still get to keep them;
I'm just on my own.

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That's a very common thing.

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I think we need a lawyer
to weigh in on this.

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So if we take them at their word,

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it sounds like they're concerned
about protecting customers.

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Okay, but their solution
is customers must have

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their purchase taken
away from them forever.

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"We have to destroy our customers'
games to protect them from themselves."

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I normally don't like to use this phrase
because it's thrown around too much,

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but this is beyond 'Nanny State'

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This is more like 'Terminator State'.

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Take a game like "Starsiege: Tribes".

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For all purposes, that's a game
intended to run online, with other people,

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or over a network at the very least.

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It was discontinued in 2004, but
you can still run it today. Online.

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This lobbying group seems
to be saying that's a liability.

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"No one should have been
permitted to run this game after 2004,

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"and it's a mistake that this
game is still allowed to exist

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"because of the risk to consumers.

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"We would have destroyed every last
copy of it back in 2004 if we could have.

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"We couldn't then, but we can now.

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"So that's our business
model with new games."

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See, I take that as extremely hostile,

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to both customers and preservation.

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So my question is, why can't we allow
customers to continue playing the game,

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but adding a splash screen
saying something like,

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"Warning! This game
is no longer supported.

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"Running it could represent
a risk to your security.

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"We assume no liability for
what may happen as a result."

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That strikes me as a
reasonable compromise.

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"In addition, many titles are designed
from the ground-up to be online only.

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"In effect, these proposals
would curtail developer choice

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"by making these video games
prohibitively expensive to create."

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Okay, this part is a little more complicated
because every game is different.

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But when I see this,

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I'm thinking of auto manufacturers
saying how they can't afford to make cars

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if they're required to
include seatbelts in them.

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Because no one ever made
that argument back in the 60's.

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However, I think there is a big piece
being left out of the discussion here.

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A whole lot of the complexity and
cost of making an online game

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comes from all the
microservices involved.

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And guess what?

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We don't need the vast majority
of them for an end-of-life build.

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I talked to a developer and he gave
me a big list of examples we don't need.

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Payment processing,
anti-cheat, analytics, voice chat.

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There's so much here that's not
necessary to just run the damn game.

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In fact, I have a quote from him.

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"We are not asking for 98% of the game.

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"We're asking for the 2% of game
logic for main gameplay functionality."

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Except even that's not true.
We're not asking for that directly.

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We're asking for the same rights
we already bought for the game,

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which they can probably fulfill by
providing that 2%, as he puts it.

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So let's cut out
all this extra crap

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before we start talking about how
cost-prohibitive an end-of-life build is.

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Now, that does mean designing games so it's
easier to turn off all these microservices

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is a very good idea.

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And that also means it may not be
practical for some existing games.

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Good thing for the industry
the initiative is not retroactive.

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And most publishers already have
a local test environment for a game,

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which I'm told is bad practice not to.

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That's half the battle right there.

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So this statement?

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No. This one is meme-level.

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I do not believe the industry when they
say this is so expensive it's not possible.

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Especially when it's been
done many times before.

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This is seatbelts all over again.

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And how about getting input from big
European developers NOT on this list?

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Like CD Projekt or Larian.

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"We welcome the opportunity to
discuss our position with policy makers"

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Yeah, I bet you do.

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"and those who have led the European
Citizens Initiative in the coming months."

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Well, they'll probably be glad
to know that's actually not me.

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I am not the official
spokesperson for the initiative.

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I'm ineligible.
I'm more of a super-promoter.

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The reason I'm making this video

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is I want to inoculate people
against these bad faith arguments.

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Remember, everything they're
saying here is their excuse

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for taking away your purchase, with no
time frame given, and destroying it forever.

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Is this a good enough excuse for you?

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It isn't for me.

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Especially when they're lying.

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I think that's worth
taking into consideration.

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And on that note, they also
released a longer statement.

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But do I really need to go over this?

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"Why providing continued
support do not work for all games."

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Oh, we're back
to the classics!

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Okay, so they don't even
understand what we're asking for.

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You know what?
I'm gonna let them figure it out.

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I played that song enough already.

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If I have to explain that a 500th time,

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I want it to at least be to someone
who's not being paid to undermine us.

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Now they're going to be lobbying
politicians with this, I'm assuming,

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but we can try and do our part too.

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If you're super motivated on
this, and are part of the EU,

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you can contact a member of European
Parliament and tell them about the initiative.

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I've been told you
should target ones in the

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Internal Market and Consumer
Protection Committee.

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There's a link in the
description below.

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Just pick one for your country.

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And I'm just relaying this next
part, I have no idea myself,

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But I've been told you should
maybe avoid PfE and ESN,

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as they're not known for "doing
things", is how it was explained to me.

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And the last bit of advice is, a
lot of email to them gets buried.

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So if you want something that stands
out, this title was suggested to me.

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"1M+ sign European Citizens
Initiative 'Stop Destroying Video Games':

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"Help us protect gamers'
consumer rights!"

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And that's all I have on Video
Games Europe lobbying against us.

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For now, I guess.

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A quick update to the last video:

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I didn't mean to scare the
hell out of everyone signing.

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If you made an honest
mistake filling out the initiative,

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it won't count, but don't worry.

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I don't think you'll be in
any trouble with the law.

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Just don't spoof fake signatures;
that's the part that's a big deal.

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Also, don't sign if you're not voting age.

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I've said this before,
but it's been a while.

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There's always 50 things to cover.

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Finally, if you have made a mistake,
you might be able to get it corrected.

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Get in touch with the official
spokesperson, Daniel.

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His info is on the initiative page.

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All right, that's it.

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Keep signing to make sure this happens.

 

[danielsangeo]

Subs up!