SOPA and PIPA appear to have been very, very good for K Street.

Companies that lobbied on the two bills spent at least $104.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, more than double the $49.3 million they laid out in the previous quarter, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Likewise, the number of clients represented by lobbyists who worked on the issues of intellectual property enforcement and online piracy — the ones central to the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House (H.R.3261) and its Senate companion, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (S.968) — increased by more than 100 percent, to 154, the Center found. The third-quarter figure was 72.

And, in remarkable harmony, the number of lobbyists hired by companies and other groups that lobbied on the bills also just more than doubled, from 462 to 956. It’s impossible to say how much of the money spent on lobbying was directly connected to SOPA and PIPA, since the reporting forms don’t require that level of detail. However, it seems clear that the legislation, which was introduced in the Senate last May and in the House in October and is meant to address the problem of piracy on foreign websites, was responsible for much of the surge in fourth-quarter lobbying on these issues.

The bills had the early, overwhelming support of content providers such as the movie and recording industries, which had long pushed for such legislation, as well as a majority of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Late in 2011, however, companies such as Google that would have been required by the measure to remove links to websites suspected of pirating, as well as other critics worried about First Amendment threats, began to make their case more vigorously. In the last part of the year, lobbying was fast and furious on both sides. The computer and Internet industry fielded 246 lobbyists to advocate on all of its issues, according to the reports filed, though SOPA and PIPA were the most important active pieces of legislation for most of its members. In opposition was the TV, music and movie industry, with 241 lobbyists. (Other industries with concerns about the issues were served by much smaller contingents).

It’s unclear how much impact all the lobbying had, despite the millions spent.. But the bills came to a standstill after more direct action by Internet companies earlier this month. Wikipedia’s English version went black for a day, Google draped a funereal banner over its name on the nation’s most popular search page, petition drives collected millions of signatures, and other actions caused a grassroots outpouring of opposition. Now, even co-sponsors of the bills have backed away. Center for Responsive Politics lobbying researcher Sarah Bryner contributed to this report.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust. Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜

About The Author Washington reporter Viveca Novak joined the Center in December 2011 as editorial and communications director; her duties include running the OpenSecrets Blog, fielding press inquiries and developing media partnerships. Viveca has been deputy director of FactCheck.org and a Washington correspondent for Time magazine and The Wall Street Journal. She has won a number of journalism awards, including Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. In 2014, she was awarded, with colleague Robert Maguire, the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Online Journalism for a series of stories published on OpenSecrets Blog. In 2005, she co-authored a book, "Inside the Wire," about the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo. Viveca has a degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University; in addition, she completed a Fellowship in Law for Journalists at Yale Law School. Follow vnovak

Read more of vnovak's posts

Read more OpenSecrets News & Analysis: