ESA drops $714K on lobbying

Earlier this year, filings with the US Senate public records office showed that the Entertainment Software Association boosted its lobbying expenditures in 2007 for the fifth straight year. That acceleration seems to be slowing--if not stopping entirely. The trade group reported first-quarter lobbying expenditures of $714,365 to the House of Representatives, roughly 25 percent of the $2.8 million it spent for all of 2007.

The trade group's slate of key issues hasn't changed, either. As was the case in 2007, its primary concerns in lobbying remain constitutional issues (free speech, game restriction laws), copyright law (piracy, intellectual property, and patent litigation), and trade concerns (countries to sanction over piracy, free-trade agreements, and regulatory concerns).

While the actual dollar amount of the ESA's lobbying efforts appears flat, the trade group may be spending proportionately more of its revenue on the practice than in prior years. After the downsizing of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the ESA made up for the loss of the trade show's revenues by increasing membership dues. However, there may be less of that money to go around as already this year major member companies like Activision, Vivendi, LucasArts, and id Software have left the organization, with more rumored to be following them out the door.

As of press time, an ESA representative had not returned GameSpot's request for comment on the matter.