The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), who support the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), combat copyright infringement and government-imposed censorship and other such things within the video game industry, spent a record $4,244,364.50 on federal lobbying last year. Spending increased 25.6 percent year-over-year, with the second half of 2008 seeing a 36.1 percent increase in expenditures. The news comes courtesy of quarterly lobbyist disclosure filings with the House Clerk's office.
Three of the firms retained by the association -- Smith-Free Group, Jenner & Block, and Telemedia Policy Group -- show us their efforts were focused almost exclusively on matters involving the regulation of games themselves, and their first duty mentioned -- supporting the ESRB, specifically, 'perceptions towards the ratings'.
Secondly, the ESA enlisted the services of the Monumental Policy Group, whose clients consist of Microsoft, IBM and Sybase. Monumental's own filings show they were busy last year lobbying Congress and U.S. Customs and Border Protection on trade and copyright matters.
The activity comes from both chambers of Congress on broadband deployment, online gaming goverance and immigration issues, as well as the U.S. Trade Representative, Department of State, National Security Council Patent & Trademark Office, and other agencies which revolve around trade regulation, anti-piracy and patent modernization.
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