On Tue, 16 Sep 2025 08:28:20 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

THE Stop Killing Games movement is reporting* that 97%
of the signatures on its petition are likely to be valid.
There was some concern that fraud/false signatures would drop
the number of signatures to below the threshold where lawmakers
have to take their motion seriously; it looks like that isn't
the case. They're still in the process of verifying the
signatures, but it seems as if the petition is on track to
be pushed forward to the European Commission.

An update to the update:

The final count of the SKG petition verifies that 1.3 million of its
1.4 million signatures are unique and valid, which is well above the
minimum required for it to move forward. The SKG petition also has one
of the lowest failure rates (e.g., lowest percentage of invalid
signatures) of any such Citizen Initiatives, which implies that people
who signed the thing were earnest in their desire rather than it just
being some fad. Germany, France and Poland led the way in number of
people signing.

While the Stop Killing Games initiative might be framed as people just
being mad about their favorite toys not working anymore, it really is
more a reflection of how people dislike how software copyrights and
DRM are being used -in games and elsewhere- to control what we can and
can't do with our purchases. The focus of the petition is on video
games, but manufacturers are using similar tactics with other products
as well. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with. Hopefully, the
SKG movement can be used as a trojan horse to weaken corporate control
over software-controlled products too... or at the very least widen
awareness by the populace of how big the problem actually is.

That said... the cynical part of me says that the big money groups
stand to lose too much if they allow this petition to enact any
changes to copyright, so I don't see much coming of it. Still, I
appreciate the effort. Good job, everybody who signed the petition!


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