ESA narrows lobbying focus

Gaming trade group totals $2.8 million in 2007 spending, trims list of causes to copyright, free trade, and free-speech issues.

The Entertainment Software Association is spending more than ever on lobbying, but the gaming trade group's latest filing shows that the money is being spent to promote a more specific agenda than in years past.

According to filings with the Senate public records office, the ESA spent nearly $2.86 million to lobby members of the legislative and executive branches of the US government in 2007. That's up from $2.3 million in 2006 and $2 million in 2005.

The spending may be increasing, but the list of topics at issue for the trade group is actually shrinking. Subjects on which the organization has quit trying to influence lawmakers include online gambling, taxation of virtual property, and Internet privacy. Now all of the ESA's chosen causes fall under headings of constitutional issues (free speech, game restriction laws), copyright law (piracy, intellectual property, and patent litigation), and trade concerns (countries to sanction over piracy concerns, free-trade agreements, and regulatory concerns).

The ESA's lobbying expenditures topped those of a number of other entertainment trade groups. The Motion Picture Association of America's 2007 lobbying spend totaled $2.28 million, while the Recording Industry Association of America dropped $2.74 million to push its own agenda in Washington, DC. The Consumer Electronics Association, organizer of the CES trade show, spent $1.52 million to influence officials' stances on the government-mandated transition to digital television, energy efficiency, electronics recycling, and trade.

17 Comments

  • HappyBB

    Posted Mar 28, 2008 2:15 am PT

    Each of the mentioned party is trying to lobby lawmakers into its own favor. Ultimately, we, the consumers, are the one to suffer or forced to bow to the biased / unfair conditions that these greedy, self-centered media giants set up. We are we gonna call for help?? Is there anyone truely on the side of the consumers? HELP!!

  • Timstuff

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 6:02 pm PT

    I'm glad they dropped the internet privacy cause, because it's really more about whether or not the government can bag people looking for kiddie porn than actual privacy issues. The ESA can do a lot better than allying themselves with child pornographers.

  • Autolycus

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 12:06 pm PT

    GonzoGuy - when you and I and everyone else let our political system get that way, we are "really stupid"

  • Autolycus

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 12:04 pm PT

    I still cant believe lobbying is even legal..... good bye democracy.

  • Hvac0120

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 9:14 am PT

    It's sad when so much money has to be spent to "bribe" politicians to vote one way or the other. This is a big flaw in US government and the main reason why we are so reliant on oil at the moment. If it were not for lobbyists, we would all be driving electric or hydrogen cars and pollution would be 50% less than it is now and we wouldn't have to worry that "The Day After Tomorrow" whether issues we have started to experience over the past few years. (among other things)

  • GonzoGuy

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 7:47 am PT

    It isn't surprising that piracy is on the rise.
    If I was a student now, I would probably be pirating too. Games have gotten too damn expensive. With a full time job, I have plenty of funds for the games I have time to play but if I had time and little money (like a surprising amount of gamers), I'd scramble to try everything.
    The fact of the matter is that allot of these $60+ games can be finished in a weekend. I would pay $20-$30 for something like that but most of the games made nowadays are shovelware that isn't even worth that much.

    Like with movies, you just have to pick through which ones are total crap, and what's worth buying. Renting helps but for some, piracy is the answer.

    We saw the same thing allot when vhs tapes and dvds cost $50 (around the beginning if their respective eras): everyone copied stuff for everyone they knew.

    The bigger travesty is that these game companies have to hike the prices even higher because they have to grease the palms of all these stupid politicians (on the right and the left) who only go after video games because it's an easy target right now. The same way D&D was, Rock n Roll was, Comics, Catcher in the Rye, and Jazz.

    They must think we're really stupid.

  • lanista

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 5:01 am PT

    I'm not American so feel free to shoot me down here if I've (in ignorance) got this wrong

    But I'm confused as to why you need to lobby for stuff that is enshrined in the constitution?

    Like I said, I'm probably missing something?

    My guess is interpreting what those rights actually mean is not as straightforward (as should be)

  • MichaelMorbid

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 3:19 am PT

    don't have much sympathy for the entertainment industry. they didn't for killing vaudeville... what goes around comes around.

  • Jose_Rizal

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 2:57 am PT

    With the rate they are going, games are $75 pretty soon. I'll give you a clue why piracy is rampant, its not really because law is not strict enough, it's because a lot of gamers cant afford it. You cant really totally stop ALL of them, they are smart enough to find a way download it somewhere. Put the prices down and you can hopefully convince SOME of them to legally buy it. What you are just basically doing with all these high prices is pushing more people towards the torrent sites and legal buyers just buying less and less games. Lower your prices and you will have more buyers, happy owners and probably less pirating. Yes, you can keep your $2.86 million too.

  • middito

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 9:27 pm PT

    Meet the Anti Jack-Thompson: Fully Loaded.

  • retrofraction12

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 7:53 pm PT

    lobbying should be banned, or stoped. only losers would dare make some spare cash to do not what they wanted to do.

  • TurtlePerson2

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 7:09 pm PT

    I've done a little research and I still don't see how "lobbying" is different than bribing. At least the Senate keeps track of who is bribing whom.

  • mujeeb1

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 6:58 pm PT

    I read ESA and thought this was about Enthusiast System Architecture. Epic FAIL for this article.

  • thermalcold

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 6:39 pm PT

    its good that there is someone looking out for our interests and protecting them, unlike a certain "lawyer" in Florida......

  • oli54321

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 5:58 pm PT

    Well this wasn't very interesting.

  • ThickFreak

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 5:48 pm PT

    That is a ton of money.

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