Aside from lobbying Congress, the ESA also spent cash towards influencing the US Copyright Office, the FCC, and the FBI, among others.

That investment paid a dividend this morning when the organization celebrated the sentencing of two software pirates and thanked the FBI and Department of Justice for their help.

The ESA has fallen on hard times recently, as the group has had several key members leave in the last few months and come under heavy fire for the poor performance of this year's E3 Media & Business Summit.