techcrunch.com — According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Google spent approximately $390,000 (out of $3,760,000.00 total) on SOPA and PIPA lobbying including efforts to educate lawmakers on SOPA and the DMCA. The question, then, is whether the massive search and advertising giant was for or against the bill - and why so much money was spent to argue the case.
The document, available online in PDF here, is fairly succinct and covers a number of topics, thereby explaining the massive cash outlay. Here's the specific mention of SOPA:
Feb 2, 2012 View in Crawl 4
eternalsnowsFeb 2, 2012
TechCrunch should be ashamed of writing such a misleading headline.
futfanaticoFeb 3, 2012
Sadly this BS headline plague has infected all journalism.
norman619Feb 3, 2012
And Digg.
jjheathFeb 2, 2012
article buried. what a load of BS techcrunch. all conjecture and no substance. and a completely made up headline.
rotfoxFeb 3, 2012
Flame bait to get views? Me thinks so.
theghoulFeb 3, 2012
What a s**tty article. Google's business model would have been destroyed if SOPA and PIPA passed. Conjecture and misleading. Shame shame, TechCrunch. Sounds like a Fox News headline.
futfanaticoFeb 3, 2012
LMAO
macparrotFeb 3, 2012
While the headline is misleading, the article itself is very interesting. With all the hoopla surrounding SOPA and PIPA on both sides, it would be nice to know what Google's official opinion was before the subject became such a hotbed.
Chances are we'll never know now what the truth is since no internet related company in their right mind would admit to being favorable over the two
adalseyFeb 4, 2012
at least i know my ad money is going somewhere i believe in.
myztryFeb 3, 2012
It is good to see the company motto prevails regardless of any misadventures of individuals at the start.
What defines any entity is not the short lived mistakes they make but what they are overall.
futfanaticoFeb 3, 2012
Fair point - plus, laws change as they are drafted. SOPA may have been a decent bill until the RIAA got their greasy lobbying hands on it.
mobilerepeaterFeb 3, 2012
yes, its true~~
shahriar01Feb 3, 2012
its right