The Video Game Industry's Lobbyists Spent $1,000,000 Pushing for SOPA and Other Issues Last Fall

By Alex Chen | January 01, 0001

Remember last month when many people were mad about the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act? Remember the war between politicians who said these bills would repel rummy new app

online piracy and rummy nobel

opponents who said it might break the internet and/or kill free speech online?(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Gamers’ biggest target for their ire about those bills was the Entertainment Software Association, rummy new app the lobbying group funded by the biggest video game publishers in the world. The ESA—which also rummy nobel hosts the massive trade show E3 each year—was for those bills and, like any lobbying group, spent money trying to get their position turned into law. Lobbyists are required to file reports about their activities every three months. That’s why we were able to report that the ESA spent as much as $190,000 paying people to lobby for PIPA, the Senate’s now-shelved anti-online-piracy bill, through the spring and summer. https://kotaku.com/gaming-industry-spent-as-much-as-190-000-pushing-for-s-5876493 As the anger over SOPA and PIPA reached a boil last month, we were still in the dark about how much money the ESA was spending to try to support those bills rummy royal this fall (they declined to tell us). But on the same day, Jan 20, that they finally disavowed the bills, they filed their required fourth-quarter lobbying report. https://kotaku.com/esa-drops-sopa-support-video-game-lobby-laments-bills-453101513 Here it is: The document lists lobbying about SOPA and PIPA among the group’s causes that they spent $1,082,167.00 on between October 1 and December 31. (That’s basically what they spend every three months.) They also lobbied about tax policy, immigration and other issues tied to the business of making video games. In that period, the group did spend $50,000 for the Smith-Free Group to lobby for PIPA and a handful of other issues and $50,000 for the Monument Policy Group to push for SOPA and lobby on several other issues. The filings don’t consistently state the ESA’s positions on the bills, but the group rummy royal

had expressed clear support for the anti-piracy issues until the 20th, a day after both bills were essentially abandoned in the Senate and House. https://kotaku.com/the-video-game-industrys-lobbyists-support-sopa-but-th-5872766 (Top photo: Shutterstock)

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The Video Game Industry's Lobbyists Spent $1,000,000 Pushing for SOPA and Other Issues Last Fall

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