Silicon Valley learns fast in game of lobbying

During the ascent of the internet, Silicon Valley geeks tapped away at keyboards in northern California while Washington policy wonks debated welfare and taxes. Both groups happily ignored each other. The isolation served the Valley well at first as it spawned many tech powerhouses without government interference. But its absence from the political arena had consequences and, in the battle over proposed anti-piracy legislation, the techies are playing catch-up to their politically entrenched opponents in the entertainment industry.

“It is the first time the tech community as a whole, including all the tech folks beyond Silicon Valley, have really come to realize how things work in DC,” said Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of web-linking site Reddit. “We spend our money innovating, not lobbying.” Media and entertainment companies are outspending tech companies at a ratio of four to one in the lobbying contest over the Stop Online Piracy Act – the 32 politicians backing the bill have received almost $2 million in campaign contributions from the film, music and TV industries, compared with little more than $500,000 that -politicians opposing the proposals have received from the computer and internet industries, according to MapLight, a campaign finance research company. Overall, financial contributions to politicians who support the bill outnumber contributions to politicians opposed to it by 13 to one, with $92.2 million spent in favor, compared with $7.2 million opposed, between January 1 2009 and June 30 2011, the latest data show.