ESA Lobbying Down 8% To $1.1M In Q2

The Entertainment Software Association, a major U.S. video game industry trade organization, spent $1.1 million to lobby on behalf of game publishers and developers in the second quarter of this year, a slight drop from the organization's recent spending. In the second quarter of last year, and in the first quarter of this year, the ESA spent about $1.2 million lobbying, making this quarter's figure an 8 percent drop on both a year-over-year and quarter-to-quarter basis. The decline is relatively minor; Q2 2009's $1.2 million budget was a 24 percent increase over the same quarter the year before. According to an Associated Press report, the ESA lobbied lawmakers and government organizations on video game legislation issues, immigration and visa requirements for skilled workers, piracy and copyright law, First Amendment protection rights, parental control technology, and other topics. In addition to Congress, the ESA's lobbying efforts targeted the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and others. Recently, the ESA has been embroiled in the controversy over a struck-down California law that would have legally restricted the sale of violent games to minors. The Supreme Court has said it will review the legislation, a move which drew input from 11 other states that support the law's legality. After that input was submitted in the form of an amicus brief, the ESA issued a statement contending that "many of the amicus briefs filed on behalf of the state of California largely, and predictably, contain mistaken information about computer and video games and our industry."