

Google Spends Record Amount on Lobbying - libraryatnight
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/under-scrutiny-google-spends-record-amount-on-lobbying/?hp&gwh=65E2A6460A5A045C5DFC7273D9E56C4B

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mattmaroon
Some good will come of this I think. Much of what Google would want to lobby
for, the rest of us in software would. Industries that make a fraction of what
software does spend so much more on lobbying and reap the benefits, its absurd
that software companies have not followed suit.

I certainly am not naive enough to think all of Google's aims will be noble
here, but I suspect they'll be closer to it than Apple or Microsoft.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I think this is true, but some of the stuff that annoys Google (like
California's labor laws) they might want to change in a way that you and I
would disagree with.

So it is nice to have someone more technologically astute lobbying the
Government, but their perspective as the 800lb gorilla with data 'issues'
might incline them more toward a 'responsible use of data collected across
products' rather than 'customers must be informed and opt-in prior to any data
use' type policies.

Back in the way back times when crytpo code was considered a munition, I was
participating in efforts to convince the Clinton Whitehouse that it was
impractical to impede US companies from putting strong encryption into their
products which Italian companies had the same tools at their fingertips as we
did. One of the unsung heroes of that time is John Gage, who probably had a
lot of trips back and forth to D.C. What I found discouraging is that for
every well motivated suggestion, we would get a couple of less savory people
jumping on board because it enabled some of their activities. Very, very
challenging to propose laws or regulations that bad actors can't turn to their
advantage some how. Depressing really.

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magicalist
Notably the Ars Technica article[1] dug up a CNN article[2] from January
saying that $4 million of that $5 million was just on SOPA/PIPA.

In any case, the Public Knowledge guy is right. You can't set the expectation
that good guys (which might not include google for you) don't participate in
the broken system and also expect good things to happen. Just like with
software patents.

(actually, lobbying may be a really good use of the reported increased revenue
Mozilla is now receiving, though it may be difficult for their more
distributed decision making process to advocate on more controversial topics.
On many open web important issues, though, I would trust them to have a clear
voice and do honest lobbying, and a few million should be easily covered by
that increase).

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/04/google-on-
track-...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/04/google-on-track-to-
outspend-banks-big-tobacco-in-lobbying.ars)

[2]
[http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/25/technology/sopa_pipa_lobby/i...](http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/25/technology/sopa_pipa_lobby/index.htm)

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ajross
It's a record for Google, and a comparatively high amount for a tech company.
But $5M certainly isn't a notable lobbying expense in Washington.

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recoiledsnake
>But $5M certainly isn't a notable lobbying expense in Washington

Do you have a reference for that?

Ars seems to say the opposite:

>From January to March of this year, Google spent over $5 million on lobbying,
nearly matching its entire 2010 lobbying budget of $5.2 million. If the
company maintains this pace, it will likely earn itself a spot as one of the
top ten spending entities for the year as logged by Open Secrets. Comparing
this same rate with 2011 figures, Google would outspend the entire tobacco
industry ($17.07 million), the combined spending of JPMorgan Chase, Wells
Fargo, and Citigroup ($18.67 million), but would be just barely behind the
combined budgets of pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Merck ($20.685 million).
For comparison, Apple spent only $500,000 for the same 2012 quarter; Microsoft
spent $1.79 million.

~~~
ajross
I had time to look some of this up. Those numbers are pretty spun. Here's the
list of the biggest spenders at Open Secrets:
[http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2011&i...](http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2011&indexType=s)

The bottom of the list (#20) is at $12M. I don't know where $5 would put you
but it's no doubt in the long tail; it doesn't even register.

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cooldeal
You just accused ArsTechnica of spinning numbers(a serious accusation) and you
yourself are comparing Google's spending in just 1 Quarter (4 months) to
numbers for a whole year (12 months) ? Wow.

~~~
ajross
Lobbying isn't a continuing expense. Google dumped a ton of cash into
Washington this quarter fighting SOPA (to all of our benefit, I might add). It
won't repeat next quarter, when there will be a similarly distorted story
about some other company with an obvious legislative goal.

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rollypolly
Very good TAL show on this subject:

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/461/t...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/461/take-the-money-and-run-for-office)

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crazy1van
Google is realizing what so many other companies have discovered -- when you
grow large enough to get on the government radar, the government can have huge
effects on a business.

Consider this -- what will affect Google's bottom line more tweaking their ad
algorithms to slightly increase efficiency or legislation outlawing targeting
ads based on specific user behavior?

How about slightly better search results or anti-trust action because of their
search "monopoly"?

A slightly better Android OS or patent lawsuits that cause royalties be paid
on every single phone sold?

By and large companies invest in actions that most affect the bottom line. A
dollar spent on lobbying is a dollar not spent on R&D, operations, support,
HR, etc. When you see any company doing a lot of lobbying instead of
developing better products and services, there is a reason.

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ok_craig
When you see a company spending a relatively minuscule amount of money on
lobbying compared to R&D, operations, support, HR, etc, what does that mean?

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spoiledtechie
Maybe Sergey Brin knows something we don't know and they are trying to stop
it.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-
freedom...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-
threat-google-brin)

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Jonanin
Apparently I've read my limit of 10 free articles per month. Is this article
anywhere else?

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pushtheenvelope
For any NYT article, you can remove the part of the URL after the "?" and that
should show the story to you.

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optymizer
so is this more like bribing politicians or more like paying the bad guys to
be left alone?

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nextparadigms
Isn't that the same thing really, even if it ends up benefiting us? I consider
all money-based lobbying as bribe. Just because they made it legal, doesn't
mean it's right.

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akozak
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "money-based lobbying"?

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iscrewyou
Paywalled.

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Liddell
Does anyone think Google is lobbying for its self driving car? So far only
Nevada has gotten on board with the technology.

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rsanchez1
Remember, Google does no evil. Some of that money was spent on defeating
SOPA/PIPA.

