Gaming Industry Spent $190,000 Pushing For Senate Version of SOPA Last Summer. Bastiches.

The US Senate has its own version of the infernal SOPA bill, called PIPA. Last summer the gaming industry spent a considerable amount of money pushing to get the goddamn thing passed.

Kotaku:

Many gamers and  video game companiescan’t stand the  Stop Online Piracy Act  and its companion bill the  Protect IP Act  (PIPA). But the Entertainment Software Association, the lobbyists who stage E3 each year and defend gaming’s freedom of speech rights,thinks PIPA is a good idea.

And they’re paying to support the legislation.

Lobbying records  for the second and third quarter of 2011 indicate that the ESA, which spends more than $1,000,000 lobbying politicians about video games every three months, paid two firms a combined $190,000 to lobby about PIPA and other issues.

Supporters say the bills would fight online piracy. Critics say that the bills, if passed, would stifle free speech online and disrupt the workings of the Internet.

The ESA has used two firms to try to convince politicians how to shape the Protect IP Act. They paid the Smith-Free Group$60,000 between April 1 and June 30  for “discussions relating to online infringements of intellectual property” relating to the Protect IP Act as well as for lobbying for non PIPA/SOPA causes. The same group was paid  $50,000 in the summer  for a similar array of causes, which also included education, energy and tax policy as it related to the gaming industry.

The ESA paid the Franklin Square Group  $40,000 in the spring  and another  $40,000 in the summer  to lobby for a batch of causes including the immigration of highly-skilled workers and for PIPA.

Praise the maker and my porn addiction, it seems like SOPA and PIPA may be slowing down in their juggernaut-esque march through Capitol Hill. Or rather if you’re pessimistic like me, our negativity is dragging it down into the Antechambers of Gloom where it will get passed and installed without us knowing it. Either through subterfuge or by burying it in some bill on Soda Pop Consumption In Secondary Ed Schools In Urban Environment. Something like that.  With industries such as this pushing so hard for it, I’ll be goddamn shocked if something doesn’t go through.