Web Giants Form US Internet Lobby Group

judgecorp writes "Google, Facebook, eBay and Amazon have apparently set up the Internet Association to lobby the US government on issues relating to online business. From the article: 'The Internet Association, which will open its doors in September, will act as a unified voice for major Internet companies, said President Michael Beckerman, a former adviser to the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee.'"

Comments

Ick

[SomePgmr]

Put simply, there are too few "voices of conscience" in that list for my comfort.

Gee, thanks SOPA. Sort of.

[Kelson]

I remember this being something that came up during the fight over SOPA: Namely, that while the entertainment industry is used to lobbying the government, the tech industry was fractured and didn't see lobbying as a high priority, so the success Hollywood had at railroading some of those crazy ideas just blindsided them. (Stacked hearings, deliberately ignoring experts, etc.) It became clear that something would have to level the field, and since we know the RIAA, MPAA and friends aren't going to back off on their lobbying (and we know the government isn't going to stop listening to lobbyists), the solution is a tech lobby.

Free Lunch on K Street

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. It's good to see these underrepresented citizens with limited economic power finally have a voice in Washington.

An Idea they should raise

[LittleBigScript]

How about outlawing Software Patents? It costs them more than it costs me, and it isn't even a barrier to entry.

Re:Call me a cynic but....

[justforgetme]

The Good: The greater web gets a voice in the US lobby
The Bad: The voice belongs to people who make fortunes about exploiting web participant's data...

Really this can be a win situation or a lose situation. No one will know until they actually bring something up.
Still it is very soon to be just running around yelling "Hurray"

The people's lobby

[Ginger Unicorn]

If laws are bought by the lobbiest with the most cash, why not start kickstarter campaigns for various sensible laws and see if we can outbid the corporations. Some laws are bought with surprisingly desultory amounts of cash. Not that's it's a particularly important law, but as an example i bet if you started a kickstarter to lobby for the legalisation of cannabis, you'd get millions. And for the abolition of the TSA.