SOPA and PIPA attract huge lobbying on both sides

Two controversial anti-piracy bills, now effectively dead in the water, attracted enormous lobbying attention on both sides. A total of 145 companies and organizations lobbied the House of Representatives for and against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), while 157 groups lobbied for and against its sister bill in the Senate, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The largest proponents came primarily from the commerce and media industries. Comcast was by far the biggest lobbyist, spending upwards of $5 million on the issue. Visa and MasterCard spent several hundred thousand dollars, as did National Amusements, AT&T News Corp. and Time Warner, CNNMoney's parent company. The cable, motion picture and recording industry lobbies also spent heavily in support of the bills.

In opposition to the bills, Google was the largest lobbyist, spending about $4 million. Also opposing the bills were eBay, Yahoo, Amazon and the Web's domain registry, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.