Posted on 02/14/2005 9:43:03 AM PST by unixfox
FEC May Tighten Restrictions On Internet Political Activity Mon Feb 14 2005 10:38:41 ET
The Federal Election Commission next month will begin looking at tightening restrictions on political activities on the Internet, ROLL CALL reports Monday.
The FEC is planning to examine the question of how Internet activities, when coordinated with candidates' campaigns, fit into the definition of 'public communications.
Specifically, the FEC is planning to examine the question of how Internet activities, when coordinated with candidates' campaigns, fit into the definition of "public communications." While coordinated communications are considered campaign contributions and therefore subject to strict contribution limits, current FEC regulations adopted in 2002 carve out an exemption for coordinated political communications that are transmitted over the Internet.
Developing...
Neither is an attack on Free Speech. I stated early on that CFR would not affect any but the most stupid and, sure enough, the Swifties came along and validated my point IN SPADES. And from the other side Moveon showed the same thing. Apparently you have not read the law.
Campaign finance reform was suppose to get the money out of politics, it had the reverse affect.
Anyone reading FR would see some pro Bush stuff but plenty of anti-Bush stuff too which would not be allowed if the site was officially pro-Bush.
It will not be part of a campaign in the future unless Jim starts to think differently than he does now.
Panic I say time for pure PANIC!!!
Not to worry. This will have no impact on us no more than CFR did on the Swifties.
I wouldn't worry about it,
They have filed to stop on-line file sharing, and this proves that the internet is truely uncontrollable.
Even if they do crack down, the Liberal sites will be hit just as hard. (hopfully).
Yet that did not stop the usual suspects from panicing and declaring the end of life as we knew it. It is amusing to watch the hysterical reactions to these attempts.
Ever surf the 'net while in China?
On Wednesday, December 10, 2003, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that upheld the key provisions of McCain-Feingold; the vote on the court was 5 to 4. Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the majority opinion; they were joined by David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer, and opposed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia.
To my knowledge, Howard Dean ws the only candidate to pay bloggers to promote his candidacy without revealing they were paid by the campaign.
I have always agreed with Gingrich on this one, just open it up and force immediate disclosure.
It is the only way.
Bloggers and media are responsible for lies and distortions. They should self clean, but libel laws are a issue.That one, I am not sure how to handle. I am conflicted on libel.
Is is free speech to tell a damaging lie?
I dunno. I think there should be a price, and we now have internet sites that perform the purpose of ferrets as that find and collect them for the public to see.
That is a good thing. But who watches them?
I guess you can see my conflict.
I'm thinking of a federal law from the 80's and early 90's (repealed about 10 years ago) that made it illegal for federal employees to write articles and gain income from same. The purpose was to stop the abuse of politicos from selling their books to unions who bought thousands of copies, a form of campaign contribution. But the result was that a low level federal or postal employee couldn't write a gardening article for their local paper, and the law was also interpreted so that federal employees couldn't have a second career as ministers performing weddings--it was considered a form of speech, and a federal civil servant couldn't get paid for speeches outside of their workplace.
I'm waiting to see how the govt. will play this new attempt at restricting freedom of speech. I'm waiting to
Before everyone works themselves into a tizzy-
FR is NOT 'public communication', it's PRIVATE communication.
PUBLIC communication is paid for with PUBLIC funds, or tax dollars.
Yeah, it's coming. Hope I die first.
One more notch up on the frog pot. Enjoy your swim...
This will be interesting. How can they permit DU and NPR/PBS to operate unfettered while restricting FR and PipeBomb?
Only in an unscrupulous way of course but this sort of disbalanced censorship has been done before.
They fit here: Free speech. Free press.
A Constitutional right seems to be solid ONLY if it is located in the penumbra.
I do not like to smell of this. I thought years ago we would be paying postage to the fed on e-mail and surprised we aren't today. Hopefully, this does not portend government meddling in the internet frontier.
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