Internet Heavy-Hitters Start Lobbying Group

Not a surprise given regulators' attempts to control them

Google, Amazon.com, eBay, Facebook and other Internet companies have formed a lobbying group called The Internet Association to tackle regulatory and political issues in Washington, D.C., and it is due to kick off on Wednesday.

It will lobby on issues such as allocation of visas for engineers and matters of privacy and piracy, said the group's president Michael Beckerman, a former advisor to Fred Upton, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee.

Other members include Expedia, LinkedIn, Monster Worldwide, Yahoo! and Zynga.