The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) issued a brief reaction statement this morning in response to the National Rifle Association's press conference which spent a fair amount of time bashing violent media and movies. The NRA's list of strawmen included Grand Theft Auto, Splatterhouse, Mortal Kombat, and a very old web-only game called Kindergarten Killers...

The Entertainment Consumers Association has issued a statement today on the tragic shooting on Friday, Dec. 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT that resulted in the death of 20 children, six adults at the school, the shooter and his mother.

You can read the entire statement below:

Disbarred Florida Attorney and anti-game crusader Jack Thompson seems to have come out of hiding to talk about the as-of-yet unestablished link between video media and the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday. In an attempt to connect with the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), Thompson decided to leave a voice mail message for ECA President Hal Halpin. The roughly 35 second-long message from Thompson is equivalent to an "I-told-you-so" to Halpin, gamers, and the non-profit.

The The Entertainment Consumers Association announced that its local chapters are working together to collect and share food in their local communities in the United States and Canada.

The ECA is also asking the gaming community to pitch in in whatever way they can by volunteering or by giving food to your local ECA chapter. You can find an ECA chapter near you by checking out this list.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) issued a brief statement expressing their sorrow for the loss of U.S. foreign service officer Sean Smith, who died when the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya was attacked by an angry mob protesting a film that negatively portrayed the Prophet Mohammad.

Yesterday NPD released a report that said that, in the last year, the number of gamers had declined by about five percent. The research firm's report ("Gamer Segmentation 2012: The New Faces of Gamers") found that 211.5 million people in the U.S. played games, about 12 million fewer than were counted in 2011.

While many accepted the numbers, not everyone agrees with them.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) recently sent a letter to the office of Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) supporting the concept of his AppRights initiative and offering some advice on using a bottom-up approach to future internet legislation.

A letter from various advocacy groups sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) urge the leaders of the Senate to add the amendment offered by Al Franken (D-Minnesota) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. The Franken-Paul amendment would remove Section 701 from the bill. Section 701 gives corporations the authority to monitor the activity of internet users and use counter-measures against traffic they decide is engaged in "cyber threat" activity.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has issued a call to arms asking netizens to join them in the fight for Internet freedom.

What is Internet freedom and how do we keep it? The ECA detailed five important points in its Declaration of Internet Freedom on July 2.

In the old days, Supreme Court Justices had very little information to turn to outside of legal briefs presented by combatants and case law when making a ruling, but a new study by William & Mary law professor Allison Orr Larsen finds that justice are increasingly turning to information on the Internet to shore up their opinions. According to research from Larsen, there were more than 100 instances where justices used information on the Internet in their opinions.

In an age where acronyms such as SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, CISPA, CSA, and more put fear into the hearts of Internet users all over the globe it's time that someone stand up and clearly define what rights we should have on the Internet. Like the Continental Congress did when America declared Independence way back in 1776, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) and other advocacy groups have come up with our own version of a "Declaration" for the Internet age.

Last week we presented the news that a "First Sale Doctrine" case (Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons) was headed to the Supreme Court. Some journalists were sounding alarm bells that an outcome in favor of the publisher in the case could have a serious impact on how people sell used products such as books, DVD's and even video games.

Advocacy groups Fight for the Future, Democrats.com, The Liberty Coalition, and the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), have banded together to create a new website called Privacy Is Awesome, to fight against CISPA and the Senate version of the bill, SECURE IT Act. The site is designed to teach netizens how to defeat the bills in five easy steps:

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has sent out an action alert calling on its members and the general public to take action against the House bill CISPA and its Senate counterpart the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. Both are bad news for anyone that uses the Internet because the laws would allow corporations like Facebook and Google to share your Internet habits with government agencies without fear of being sued by you for doing so.

Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) President Hal Halpin talks to Destructoid about SOPA, PIPA, the importance of advocacy, his thoughts on the VGVN and League for Gamers, Kickstarter, what the gamer advocacy group has planned going forward, and much more.

Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) president Hal Halpin recently sat down with Destructoid to talk about the dangers consumers face at the hands of corporate interests and by politicians creating new regulations and laws that stifle free speech and invade our privacy. We'll update our story later when the full interview goes live, but this quote from Halpin deals specifically with the issue of CISPA and laws like it:

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has issued a call to action concerning the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. We've talked about CISPA here, and while it's not quite as overreaching as SOPA, PIPA, or ACTA, the bill is so vague in its language that it could prove to be dangerous if interpreted the wrong way by individuals and groups that don't give two shakes about privacy, Internet freedom and free speech.

Recently a contingent of highly motivated constituents went to Washington D.C., led by the Entertainment Consumer Association’s Hal Halpin and Jenn Mercurio, to talk to lawmakers about policies that affect consumers such as PIPA, SOPA, ACTA, and more. Josh Hughes, Lead Game Designer at Kaizen Games, was one of those people, and below he shares his experiences. This article originally appeared on the Kaizen Games Blog and is reprinted below with their kind permission.

Today members of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) and a handful of supporters are in Washington to talk to member of Congress and their staff about the issues the group cares about. While the ECA champions a lot of causes the biggest issue may very well be the most recent - HR 4204: The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2012. Since it's on the ECA's mind, you can bet that the bill sponsored by Rep. Baca (D) and Rep. Wolf (R) will be a hot topic.

The Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA) has issued an action alert, a call to arms for gamers everywhere to let their elected officials know that The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2012 wasn't acceptable in 2009 and is not acceptable now. Rep. Joe Baca (D CA-43) has teamed up with Rep. Frank Wolf (R VA-10) to reintroduce a bill that is very familiar to gamers.

The Connecticut State Senate is considering a bill that would add taxes to digital goods. The "stated purpose of the bill, is "to include digital movies, books, music, ringtones, audio and video works and similar downloadable products as subject to the sales and use tax." If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2012, and would apply to sales occurring on or after that date.

Major League Gaming announced that professional Halo player Dave "Walshy" Walsh will retire from the Pro Circuit, and will move into a new role as a commentator at MLG events. Walsh will join commentators Bravo and Gandhi at the Winter Championships in Columbus on March 23-25.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has issued an action alert asking ECA members and the general gaming public to contact their local representatives to find out if the terms of many End User License Agreements (EULA) are actually legal in their respective states. Find the Action Alert below:

The Entertainment Consumer Association has issued an action alert, a call to arms to let lawmakers in Canada know that C-11, an act to amend the Copyright Act, must remove a provision that makes "jailbreaking" illegal. While the amendment to existing copyright law in Canada isn't as strict or over reaching as SOPA and PIPA, it does contain some questionable provisions that could hurt consumers.

Electric Playground recently caught up with Hal Halpin, President and founder of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), to talk about the online battle to stop the passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Halpin talks about how the online protest last week slowed down the momentum of both SOPA and PIPA, and why these bills aren't quite dead yet.

Check out the video to your left.

[Full Disclosure: GamePolitics is an ECA publication.]

Andrew Eisen gives us a visual representation of how gamers felt when they heard the news that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) was supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act. Is this the thanks gamers get from the trade group representing the video game industry after all of their hard work in Brown v. EMA?

We'll let you judge for yourselves. This is probably the best video Andrew has ever made, in my humble opinion. Watch it to you left and be sure to stop by Andrew's YouTube Channel to subscribe.

Walshy Addresses SOPA/PIPA

By Dave Walsh, ECA Pro Gaming Chapter Pres.

There are still many people out there that don’t know about, or are misinformed regarding two very concerning pieces of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and Protect IP Act (PIPA). The names of these bills sound noble enough, but the effects that they will have if passed will be devastating.

On January 18 at 8:00 am ET GamePolitics and other ECA-owned websites will go dark in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Acts. We are proud to stand with an estimated 7,000 web sites and organizations to show our opposition to the government’s efforts to curtail free speech and innovation in the name of protecting the interests of corporations and lobbyists. We feel that there are better ways to fight online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods without comprising innovation, free speech, and the integrity of the Internet.

On Friday the Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA) sent out a PSA to its partners and friends asking them to join them in the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act - two anti-piracy and rogue web site laws that fight illicit copyrights infringement and counterfeit goods at the cost of free speech, fair use and the integrity of the Internet. We posit that free speech will always be a more valuable commodity than the profits of corporations and special interests and should always be protected.

On behalf of GamePolitics and the ECA, I wish all of our readers a safe and happy holiday - whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, some other holiday, no holiday at all, etc.. We will be back on Monday with bells on!

On behalf of Hal, Heather, Jennifer, Michael, Andrew, Brett, and the rest - Happy Holidays!

- James Fudge, Managing Editor, GamePolitics.com